Potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes

I've just received my seed potato order from JBA, delivered by next day courier no less

All appear to be of a very good size and quality, much better than T&M (my previous supplier).

I just wish I hadn't ordered so many :( One hell of a lot of trench digging to do up the allotment! One hell of a lot of egg boxes I need to find LOL.

I'm growing:-

Rocket
Arran Pilot
Charlotte
Kestrel
King Edward
Desiree
Maris Piper
Cara

and I've saved a few tubers from the unknown variety I grew last year which were delicious but they're going in the garden :D

 

Brilliant Vince:yess: you've got your work cut outif only i had the space..

it's all worth while though is'nt it ...lovely new spuds,gorgeous chips and best of all....lovely fluffy mash can't beat it

 

How much of each did you order?

I put an order in before Christmas with JBA, for some of the plot holders at the allotment...about £160 worth all told.

I've the equivalent of 2 x 25kg sacks of seed potatoes (approx 600 tubers) to grow this year, spread over three varieties.

12.5kg International Kidneys,
12.5kg Kestrel
25kg King Edwards

But we have arranged to do some swaps between those who ordered so we get a good mix of spuds each. I've also got a few KG's of Purple Majesty to try. Our spuds are arranged for delivery next week.

Steve...

 

would you be better off chitting them in fruit boxes Vince?

 

Now that is some serious quantities of potatoes - I am in awe!! There's me thinking I'm being 'daring' by ordering nine kilos, 'small potatoes' in comparison!!

 

I ordered 30 tubers each of : Kestrel, Maris Piper, Desiree and Cara, 10 each of the others.

Having a "new" allotment (been derelict for years) I thought a load of spuds would help break up the ground

 

Thats my way of thinking too, new ground to break up. I'll probably order less next year.

But we ordered as an association so the prices where very low, both sacks (50kg total) cost me less than £25 plus a fiver delivery, which is cheaper than I paid last year for 17.5kg.

I'll probably have a few KG's left over which I can pass on to other plot holders.

Steve...

 

"International Kidneys"

You a fan of that Steve? or is it for other plot holders?

Without the Jersey Seaweed their taste is disappointing ... well, to my way of thinking anyway.

 

I find quite the oposite Kristen, both taste and texture beats the Jersey's ..no competition in my view. A great first early

I never got round to it last year but I was intendeing to collect some seaweed (I'm only around 7 miles from the coast here) and try a row for comparison's sake.

Steve...

Edit: It's strange but many people rave about Charlottes, when I have never been that impressed with them myself, having both grown and bought them from the supermarket too. But it's one of the varieties I'll be swapping for this year, so who knows..maybe my opinion will change. I know your a Charlotte fan Kristen.

Steve...

 

Taste is subjective isn't it? So if I said "you have no taste" I'm sure you would just think "nor do you", and in fact its just that tastes vary.

In fact it may have much to do with Soil, as Taste. I've heard people say that a Spud-they-like didn't taste as they knew it when visiting friends, and you make the point that the International Kidneys taste, to you, nothing like the ones that the Jersey folk grow ...

Age-old advice for newbies is to grow a small amount of numerous varieties and see what they like the taste of, then settle on those (plus maybe a few of some other varieties for an "experiment") each year

But your memory is good, I enjoy some Charlottes every Spring and have fond memories of some other Charlottes from my youth!

I grow Arran Pilot for the earliest (not tried Rocket, but that is probably even earlier), mostly in Bags, then Charlottes in bags followed by outdoors for my Earlies, and then Pink Fir Apple (what Twit did they let loose to name that one, eh?!!) for Bar-B-Q lunches from early August onwards. They store quite well too. I don't bother with main crop any more, too much hassle to store, and they are usually all sprouting by Christmas ... but perhaps I should grow a few monster-tuber ones for Baking.

 

I'm growing Kestrel, Desiree, Maris Piper & Charlotte and buying the Kestrel & Desiree in 25kg sacks (and splitting/sharing) to get the cost down to 85p/kg (£21.25/sack). I've still got nearly three sacks of Desirees left from last year's bumper crop.

 

i've only got pentland javelin and swift, no main croppers at all scrapped by the almighty boss less digging i suppose.
i always thought soil type and ph levels where a main factor in potatoe taste:D
i chuck pot ash and well rotted leaf mould on where i plan to grow my potatoes and dig it in always had good crops and flavour

 

Indeed they do, but being an ex chef I'm of the opinion that people know when something is good or bad..regardless of individual taste.

I've eaten Charlottes many times from the supermarkets over the years, an ok spud but it didn't make me want to sing and dance.

I grew them in sacks a few years ago and was unimpressed, by comparison to others I was growing, I grew them in soil the next year and was still not wholly impressed, so I'm trying them again in the allotment soil this year.

Steve...

 

Well, putting flippancy aside for a mo., we think that the Charlottes we grow have no Wow! when they get past the pick-early stage. We tend to grow quite a few, and thus plenty are picked in the second-half of their harvest-window, and teh discerning members of my extended family tell me that they are nothing like as good ... so harvest-timing might be a consideration too.

 

P.S. Keeping time, from harvest-to-cook, may be a player too. Other spuds (forgotten which varieties just now) that fall to bits when cooked can be much better behaved if "stored" for a few days before cooking.