Questions For a Seed Potato Producer

This is a collaborative post

Okay this post is me being a proper geeky farmers son! It's a long post but I think it's really interesting one!

I'm always fascinated in how other farms run and when putting yesterdays post together with Potato House I had so many questions about how they operate, I thought it would be great to do a short questions and answer post. I asked Amy from Potato House the following questions and loved the answers:-

Why is Scotland known for producing seed potatoes? 
Our slightly cooler climate makes it easier to grow healthy seed free from aphid-transmitted diseases. In addition, our farm is at 150 m (500ft) above sea level so it is slightly cooler and better suited for organic seed production. Scotland has long been the supplier of seed potatoes for most potato production across the UK. Scotland also exports seed potatoes to many destinations notably Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, but also the Far East and South America.

Still Time To Plant Potatoes!

This is a collaborative  post

In gardening we are governed by many myths and old wife's tales. Just the other day I was putting in some potatoes and someone said to me that I should have put them in on Good Friday. Now despite the fact that Good Friday moves every year, I can also say that there is no way commercial potato farmers follow these rules - and they get some pretty impressive crops. 

So there is still plenty of time to put in potatoes! 

£18 For 75kg Of Potatoes

"Why'd you buy 75 kg of potatoes Kev?" 

"Why not!?!"

Last Friday I popped over to a local farm after playgroup to buy some potatoes. I normally buy a couple of bags at a time, but this time they had three varieties to try out so I decided to buy a bag of each to compare. I'm the same when I buy flour - big bags are the only way to go.

Three bags like this will take us a long time to get through, but stored in a cold frost free place they'll last just fine. 

Buying direct from the farm is so much cheaper than buying from the supermarket and knowing that there is a few months worth of spuds ready to cook and eat is great as well. 

So far we've only tried Nectar, which is a variety I haven't heard of before, the sign on the farm office door was right though, they make a fine jacket (baked) potato and best of all they all seemed to be a good size (much easier preparing meals for me!).

I'm also thinking about pressure canning some of these potatoes as I think it would be great to have some near ready meals sat on the shelf waiting to go - I'll let you know if I do it. 

What do you like to buy in big quantities? 

What do you find is cheapest to buy direct?

Guerilla Veg

When we dug the footings for the greenhouse back in the spring we made a rather large tump of soil in the garden. 

 This has then grow a large selection weeds and plants over the summer. From nettles to nasturtiums, but it did also grow some self set veg.

 A rather large winter squash plant - I'm not sure on the variety as it's not like any I've grown previously - but there are at least three massive squashes on a plant that takes up 6ft square!

 The other thing was self set potatoes. So when I went to cook tea tonight and realised that we had no tatties to go with our omelet, I decided we go and dig them all up, I don't currently bother growing main crop potatoes as they're pretty cheap straight from the farm and I can grow high value crops in their place. 

Not a massive haul but they were all good sized and involved literately no effort in growing them! Tasted very good covered in rosemary and garlic! 

Anyone else found any self set veg on their garden this year?

"Grown Up" Potatoes

My sliced, roast, rosemary and garlic potatoes have become one of the staples of my weekly cooking lately, but the other night I thought I should try and make them a bit more child friendly. Not by cutting back on the flavour though!

Cookie cutters with potatoes (in fact these are from her play-doh set!)

 I raided my little girls play-doh set and found some of the different shaped cutters in there and used these on slices of potatoes. So simple I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before! 

Both parts of the potato add a bit of interest and give more crispy edges!

Plenty of rosemary and garlic to be cut up fine and mixed with a cold pressed rapeseed oil

The finished thing

When I brought them out I got a "Wow Dad" which is always nice (even if she sometimes says the same thing when I get her a cup of water!), but I thought this idea is a fun way to get kids to eat home made cooking and, although simple, I thought I'd put it on here. 

Anyone else do something similar?

£6 Potatoes

I was reading a budget recipe book the other day when the author was saying how the cheapest way to buy potatoes was out of a tin. I'd have to disagree and say it's from a 25kg sack straight from the farm.

They ride up front with me...

Lots of the farms around here sell their potatoes on the side of the road and the ones we've had all seem good quality, large potatoes and all between £6-£7 a bag. In my book that makes them pretty good value, in fact it's hardly worth growing them. I'm only going to grow early potatoes this year and wait until I'm more "on top" of the garden before I try and grow too many main crop potatoes.

 

Does anyone else grow many potatoes or buy them in bulk like I do and instead stick to a few early ones? What other veg are hardly worth growing due to how cheap they are (I'd be tempted to say carrots here but they taste so much better home grown and work out about £2 for seed that will grow almost all you need for 6 months!)?