Buying Potatoes query

Can someone tell me how far into t he current year that one is purchasing potatoes from the previous seasons crops in the supermarkets?. I recently bought a bag of spuds (estima) which had that sweet taste and bad consistency that happens when last years stored crop is on its last legs. I really thought that August was a bit late to be selling old potatoes if that is what they were, or are the some of varieties on sale so bad,?

 

As I understand it, Estima are second earlies - thus they could have been harvested as early as June and should be OK, but .. if you got them from the supermarket then I can't say I'm really surprised. Sadly few supermarkets seem to know how to store anything correctly (which is why their bananas look ripe until you peel them only to find a black mush inside .. cold draughts, bananas hate draughts - but try telling a supermarket that).

 

Thanks for replying, I guess it is better to buy from a proper knowledgeable greengrocer if you can find such a thing these days, I have several times bought some pretty but never ripening fruits from T ....s ( beware the value range) I wonder where on earth they got them from.

 

Inedible produce is the payoff consumers have to accept for wanting everything all year round - supermarkets are happy to supply the stuff, if it's there on the shelf and looks OK, all they're concerned about is that it gets sold, but few know how to store it and care even less. As for the 'value range' - I've often thought that must contravene some Act somewhere along the line, adding as it does, 'value' only to a certain supermarket's trading figures!

 

I always think that the fruit from T..... s is rubbish. The apples are picked off the trees far too early. I gather that some foreign producers have different standards for British supermarkets than for foreign ones. They know that the French for example would not put up with the unripe rubbish we get. I suspect it might be our supermarkets wanting produce that has a long shelf life.
When we can we buy our apples from orchards. At present we are inundated with Katy apples from the garden. When those are finished we will go and buy boxes of apples from some Cheshire orchards. They will store in the sheds and some varieties will last until after Christmas. We get varieties that you cannot get from the supermarkets and the flavour is superb.

 

I've not seen any maincrop spuds for sale in supermarkets around here yet.
Estima may be a second early, but my farm shop only starts to sell current seasons spuds about nowish.
That is apart from those usual earlies.

Those sold as baking spuds in supermarkets are still last years.