Potatoes

The potatoes are all in now. You can see what we've planted in the growing today section on the right. The first earlies were planted in the third week of March. More were planted each week until the late maincrop went in at the end of April. Earlies need 10 to 12 weeks of growing before digging up whereas the maincrop need about 20 weeks. This means the first new potatoes will be ready at the start of June and we'll be harvesting until the end of September. We put in 140 seed potatoes. Even with only 1kg of spuds per plant that's still 140Kg. With the manure and added organic potato fertiliser I would be hopeful of getting at least 200Kg of spuds in 2009.

When it's time to harvest they'll go into potato sacks. Last year's crop were still being eaten in January this year. Unlike shop bought spuds which sprout after a few days, even in the dark, the allotment spuds are happy in a sack in the garage for a few months. Makes you wonder what they do to the shop spuds before they sell them.

And when it comes to taste there is no comparison to the shop bought stuff. That was the biggest revelation the first time I grew my own potatoes. They actually had flavour and the different varieties could be told apart. As it's such a staple of the British diet it's amazing what we put up with from the supermarkets. If there's one thing I'd recommend, even if you only have a small back garden, it's to grow some potatoes. You can do this in an old dustbin, a large sack or a special potato planter. Get some good seed potatoes and see the difference. There are plenty of internet sites which give advice on how to do this.