My First Potato Harvest

Planted some Charlotte New potatoes on my birthday back in March, everything seemed to be going ok and then I came to harvest one of the plants yesterday. First of all I wasn't expecting them to come out this big, I'm used to the little ones you buy in the supermarkets. I'm assuming they must have grown too well or that this is their actual size?



Anyway one of them I pulled out was covered in little bumps, which looked like warts and bumps to me. Is this something I should worry about?



I cooked some last night and they were yummy but the skins had fallen off. How can I stop this from happening again?

 

The skins fall off during cooking largely because when they are so fresh out of the ground, there is very little skin to speak of. Just a very thin, delicate layer.

The skin stays on shop ones because they've been out of the ground for a while and the skins thickens up when exposed to the air.

After a day or two of being out of the ground, yours will be the same.

I tend not to boil new potatoes straight from the ground. I either bake them (if they are a bit larger) or shallow fry them if they are tiny. That traps all the flavour in and keeps the skin.

 

That's the size they are meant to be, wouldn't worry about the warty one, if it puts you off just cut the bits off, won't hurt you.

If you're going to store them you leave them in the ground for a few weeks after the haulms have died back, that thickens the skin too.

 

Makes perfect sense now. I don't mind eating the warty one I was just concerned it might have been something in the soil, like scab.

I have another 8 plants in the ground and the haulms are starting to die back, but don't know how quickly I will be able to eat all of these as I wasn't expecting them to be so large. How long will they keep in the ground for before they start regrowing, if at all?

I didn't know you could bake new potatoes. I reckon I might make a few potato wedges out of them but I didn't know I could make a baked potato from them for some reason.

Do all new potatoes turn out this big? I was hoping from some little ones. Are there any varieties that will guarantee this or should I just try growing first earlies instead?

 

Oh, see the tiny marble sized ones? Some people chuck them for some reason, figuring they're not worth the effort of cooking. I think they are the best ones in terms of flavour. For me, they go in a wok with some olive oil, garlic and rosemary, and some chopped up onions, chicken or mushrooms (or both), some broad beans if you have some, and some tomato puree. Delicious.

 

Yep all the plants have flowered and something is eating all the haulms very quickly.

Also can I compost the taproots of the plant that the tubers are attached to? I assumed that tap roots are bad in composting but as the tuber is the food store of the potato plant I thought I would double check.

 

I do them in the microwave. For 'old' tatties the oven is of course best, but for newies, the microwave is better because it keeps the skins soft and the inside moist. Drizzle olive oil and chopped rosemary over them before nuking them for 6 minutes on full power, turn them, give them 5 minutes, then check if they are soft and possibly give them another 5 minutes if they are not fully soft. When you turn them, make sure the olive oil coats them completely. The effect is that the skins are effectively fried in olive oil and garlic while the insides are as soft and moist as if they were boiled.

 

Sounds interesting, may give this a try tonight.

How long will new potatoes keep for once they're dug out of the ground?

They're not really turning yellow, just the plants seem to be flopping over and something is eating them, with the leaves being all holey. Assuming it's slugs or caterpillars.

 

Could be one of these eating them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death's-head_Hawkmoth

They come over here in hot weather, catterpillars are the size of a small tube of toothpaste.


Best get the water on the boil before digging any more up Jane, straight from ground to saucepan (with a quick wash) is best with New Potatoes

 

I reckon the little ones you get in the shops are graded - and the big ones they harvested went for chips or crisps.

On the Spud plant you will see tiny spud-lettes; if you delay harvesting a week they will be big ones, and more little ones will have formed (so to speak ... obviously the plant calls it quits at some point). So not fesible to get just small ones. My wife asks for them every year ...

I would leave them in the ground until you want to eat them - unless the slugs start eating the tubers. Once disconnected from the parent plant the sugars will start turning to starch, so best not to harvest them for more than a day or two before eating..

 

My 1st earlies are tiny - so I'm gonna let em get bigger - dug some up though and the tidgy ones were really tasty - almost sweet.