• yellow flesh
• smooth skin
• oval shape
• small to medium size
• very high yielding
• fairly firm texture on cooking
• multi-purpose or salad type

If anyone knows where to find some Exquisa potato seed please do contact us!

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snow-on-vegetable-patch

This example of how not to grow potatoes has proved rather successful. We tried it last year and it worked then, too.
Instead of lifting potatoes before the first frost and storing them in nice Hessian bags, we have left them in the ground.

tray-holding-plastic-down

We have covered them over with a blue plastic sheet to keep some frost off – and the snow, hopefully, has provided some insulation.

We lifted some Kestrel today, after pulling the sheet back.

plastic-pulled-back

We dug 2.5kg of Kestrel potatoes (the gardener said it was just from one side of the root!)

2.5kg-Kestrel-potatoes

The skins do look a bit scabby, but the skin scraped off easily and left a clean potato.

KestrelPotatoes

They do taste good!  Kestrel are a second early.  Click this link to buy some Kestrel seed potatoes.

But there is a risk to this strategy.  If the frost gets down into the potatoes they will go soft and to mulch when they thaw out, rendering them useless.  But we had a good 5C degrees of frost last night and the soil was still quite warm.  Last year after a prolonged period of very cold weather we did loose one or two.  So this exercise is definitely an example of how not to grow potatoes!

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·         Swift are the earliest variety, ready within 7 weeks of planting

·         Les plants Swift in January

·         He grows them in flower buckets

·         The buckets are kept in the greenhouse all the time

·         Swift only have short tops, so don’t fall over

·         Les pulls the plant out of the bucket, picks of the largest potatoes & returns the plant to the bucket to continue growing!

Swift is ‘The earliest early” according to the British Potato Council variety database.

 Characteristics of  Potato Variety:

·         exceptionally early maturing potato variety

·         good yields

·         attractive, medium sized potatoes

·         good skins

·         good cooking quality

Click this link to buy Swift new potatoes from Unwins

Swift is a very early potato variety!

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new-potatoes-15-May

With fingers crossed, we planted these Maris Bard  on 12th February, very early because Mike was away for the following 3 weeks.  The seed potatoes were particularly big, which helped to give us a head start.

Even though the potatoes were covered with polythene  we had a scare last week when we had a ground frost early in the morning.  Leaping out of bed at first light, we rushed out to sprinkle the potatoes (& strawberries) with water – a trick to keep the frost off.

Other than the frost protection, we have not watered these potatoes at all since they were planted- and we only had 9.5ml rain in March and none in April!

The soil is now very dry, so it is easy to dig the new potatoes out with your hands.

digging-new-potatoes

The soil is full of the potato roots – which have helped the potato plants to grow so well.

roots+new-potatoes

The first new potatoes were quite delicious!

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He said he always grows Swift & has the first boiling in early May!  Here are some of the secrets I picked up:

·         Swift are the earliest variety, ready within 7 weeks of planting

·         Les plants Swift in January

·         He grows them in flower buckets

·         The buckets are kept in the greenhouse all the time

·         Swift only have short tops, so don’t fall over

·         Les pulls the plant out of the bucket, picks of the largest potatoes & returns the plant to the bucket to continue growing!

Swift is ‘The earliest early” according to the British Potato Council variety database.

 Characteristics of  Potato Variety:

·         exceptionally early maturing potato variety

·         good yields

·         attractive, medium sized potatoes

·         good skins

·         good cooking quality

Click this link to buy Swift new potatoes from Unwins

Swift is a very early potato variety!

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Folk lore dictates that potatoes are planted on Good Friday.  Good Friday was the first day the working  man would have off between Christmas and Easter.  He was keen to plant potatoes at the first opportunity because they were a staple food for his family. 

plant-potato-with-chits-upwards

Folk law also states that

• in Northern Ireland you plant potatoes on St Patrick’s day and dig them up on the 12th July.
• or..  on the nearest full moon to St.Patrick’s Day (16 March 2011)  plant the first earlies

plant-potato-in-hole

So, it is up to you to choose which bit of folk lore you are going to follow when it comes to planting potatoes!

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The mustard should be sown, on the ground which is going to grow the potatoes, in the early autumn before the potatoes are to be planted.  The mustard is chopped up and incorporated into the soil in the spring, before potato planting.

Caliente mustard releases a gas called isothiocyanate  when it is chopped or crushed in damp conditions.  This gas acts as a biofumigantin the soil, and reduces the actions of  potato cyst eelworm.

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Characteristics of Purple Majesty Potatoes:

• purple flesh
• satiny purple skin
• high in anthocyanins, an antioxidant
• oblong tubers – good for chips
• resistant to most viruses, susceptible to blackleg & dry rot
• medium to late season potato
• good for short-term storage only
• high yielding

Purple Majesty Potatoes are fun to eat as they are purple even when cooked!

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Last week was warm and wet, and for some reason a cloche had been put over half the potato row, so covering those potato leaves and keeping the rain off. 

blight-in-uncovered-potatoes

The covered potatoes are healthy,

healthy-potato-leaf

but those plants left out in the rain have been decimated.

blighty-potato-row

This all happened in a week, and it demonstrates that blight flourishes in warm wet weather, and it is really worth applying a protective spray to potato crops.

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TopVeg packed the sacks and sent them with the morning post, & they arrived  today, Wednesday, the very next day.

The purchaser kindly sent this note:  ‘Thank you so much, received today.

I really appreciate speedy turn around from TopVeg’

Click this link to buy some Hessian Sacks.

TopVeg Hessian Sacks have been used for sports day and the school play.  They are ideal for storing potatoes and onions as they allow the vegetables to breathe, and keep the light out.  Using TopVeg Hessian Sacks to decorate for Harvest Festival is a first as far as we know. 

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