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| An assortment of potato growing recepticles.... |
Everybody likes
potatoes don’t they? And they are rather an adaptable vegetable that can be
eaten as a side dish, main dish, starter or dessert.
Yes, dessert…you heard.
Anyway, I’m not going
to talk about cooking with these wonderfully versatile tubers – I’m going to
look at how easy they are to grow.
Most of our potatoes
are turned into that mainstay of modern gastronomy – the chip, French fry or
wedge…but, they are so adaptable, such an all round, flexible vegetable that
the uses of it are far too numerous to explore.
So why don’t we grow
our own more?
Because they are cheap?
Because they are
difficult to grow?
Because we don’t have
space?
I don’t know, but I
think that the first answer is probably the most correct. Why bother growing your
own when they are relatively inexpensive to buy? Well, bread can be cheap, but
until you’ve tasted a loaf from the oven – sliced within minutes of being
baked, warm enough to melt the butter spread upon it and experienced the taste
and smell of really fresh bread – you can’t really understand why home-grown
vegetables taste better than shop bought ones, why just picked raspberries are
more succulent, more alive with flavour than supermarket fruits. Or why fresh
potatoes – of a variety that you chose, chitted, planted and harvested yourself
– taste much better than the run of the mill, limited variety potato from the
Supermarket. Washing, peeling and cooking a spud just minutes from the earth is
a whole different experience than using a potato that has been scrubbed and
denuded of all the goodness from its skin, packed in a plastic bag, and hauled
miles through heavy traffic to your shop – but maybe the real reason they taste
so very different is that you grew it yourself!
And yes, that can make
a real difference.
So how easy is it to
grow your own?
Well, try this:
Find a large-ish pot.
Start to fill it with
earth from somewhere until it’s two thirds full.
Place 3 – 6 old
potatoes on top
Fill it with more earth
Water it occasionally
Wait
Once the greenery has
flowered, wait three more weeks, longer if you can
Empty the pot
Eat all the potatoes
within, at your leisure, in any way you wish.
It really is that easy,
some magazines sell kits of seed potatoes, bags and earth – DO NOT BUY THESE
KITS! They are a rip off, seed potatoes are just potatoes gone to seed…
You can also plant
potatoes in the ground if you have the space….No, really.
Three or four potatoes
planted could easily produce a couple of kilos of spuds within a couple of
months.
There are over 4000
varieties of potato, so which one to choose?
Well, Pink Fir Apple is
fun, tasty and waxy, Charlotte is large and multi functional, Anyas are great,
but why not try a few different ones? Supermarkets sell Red Roosters – a
popular line now - and I have found these
to be easy to grow, high yielding and tasty. Experiment, try various types that you like...
Have a go at growing your own
potatoes – they are easy and great for kids to get involved with – all kids
love potatoes – but so do most adults…
.
Chips, jackets, mash, sautéed, dauphinoise, creamed,
rosti, roasted, boiled, curried, crushed, Boulangere...just to start with.
They’re fun to cook with too..
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| Reclaimed woodland - with potatoes coming up... |
