14 June 2011

First Produce

We had new potatoes tonight, grown by yours truly in the garden at Tre Agan. I would have left them a little longer, but the recent winds had broken some of the stems of the potato plants leaving me no choice but to harvest.

We didn't get that many, but as a first attempt I was delighted with the outcome and the flavour was great. They were harvested, cooked and eaten within two hours.. even Birds Eye couldn't do any better.

Served up with English lamb steaks, fresh carrots (though not home grown) and some Cornish cauliflower they tasted like ambrosia and I finally get it, why Dad grew his own. It wasn't the savings in money, but the enhanced flavour and knowing it was your own hard work.. Bless you Dad, it has only taken me the best part of 50 years to work that out.. I obviously wasn't there when they handed out the brains lol.

So I am hoping to get some more seed potatoes in, I think I have a chance with the extended growing season down here to get one more crop in and enjoy the fruits but certainly planning on doing more and have my name down for an allotment as well.. nothing like future planning.

4 comments:

Rosalind Adam said...

Can't wait for our potatoes to be ready. Mr A says he's going to try digging one up in a few days time. Last year's crop tasted delicious. I'm salivating already.

Asclepius said...

The weird weather here is playing havoc with my chillies and peppers but my spring onions, lettuce and tomatoes are coming along nicely. Cant have it all I guess.

Never tried potatoes. This is probably a really stupid thing to ask but do you literally just plant one .....?

A while ago you suggested planting a few marigolds to deter the greenfly. I cant believe how well this has worked, I've had absolutely no problems so far this season so thank you for that.

Sage said...

@Rosalind - we didn't want to harvest them this early, only the high winds damaged the stems and we couldn't leave them any longer. Having said that I now know what I am doing and hopefully will have a chance of getting some more planted this year.

Sage said...

@Asclepius - potatoes are fairly easy, you need to buy seed potatoes and let them chit (or grow shoots for the bewildered lol), then plant it in 6 inches of compost and as it starts to grow green leaves, keep adding compost until you have reached the top of the container. We used a plastic sack which has purpose made drainage holes as in the photo.

Glad the marigolds worked, the greenfly apparently don't like the scent given off by the flowers and I can remember Dad growing them in amongst his vegetables.