potatoes

Ignoring the Old Timers

March 21, 2011
Ignoring the Old Timers

Two successive weekends on the plot and I can officially declare the allotment season open. This weekend was particularly glorious and I may have even acquired a little sunburn. I always get over excited at the first sign of spring sun and despite the old timers warning me that the soil is still too cold, [...]

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The Spring Potato Glut

February 19, 2011
The Spring Potato Glut

There has been a slow and soggy start to the 2011 allotment year but the urge to plant is becoming more forceful. The urge to get out there and dig over the plot isn’t that strong yet though. Hopefully it will come soon as the potatoes are taking over the house….

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Putting Down Roots

October 17, 2010
Putting Down Roots

I must feel settled here. I spent the afternoon preparing a permanent bed, with manure, trenches and finely sieved soil, all for a crop that won’t be harvested for about 4 years. It’s an incredibly high maintenance crop, at least at the outset, and it only produces edible shoots for a couple of weeks. Hardly [...]

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The Remains of the Day

July 4, 2010
The Remains of the Day

You know it’s been a great evening when you finish off with a couple of empty bottles of fine ale and a bucket full of fresh produce. Days really don’t get much better than this. We sat in the sun and ate Ratte potatoes boiled with freshly podded peas and pondered over the mystery of [...]

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Spud Dispute

April 6, 2010
Spud Dispute

We barely made it to the plot at all in March but just as the month was turning, the sun arrived. We grabbed our seed potatoes and ran to the plot clutching a days supply of delicately cut sandwiches and flasks of hot drinks. Four hours later, stripped to our t-shirts, we would have happily [...]

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Amanita Fears

January 19, 2009
Amanita Fears

I went to the plot this weekend with the intention of digging over acres of land ready for mammoth spud burying activities on Good Friday but the ground was too soggy for me to bother. I did a bit of shed tidying instead and laid out a load of the bargain seed potatoes that Dad [...]

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Winter Roots

November 9, 2008
Winter Roots

I woke at the crack of dawn, dreaming of crunchy roast potatoes. Fortunately I didn’t have a stash of Kerr’s Pink in the flat or I think I would have been chomping away long before 5am. Not one to delay gratification for too long, I waited for daylight and then headed down to the plot [...]

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Little Helper

August 25, 2008
Little Helper

I escaped to the coast for most of the bank holiday to get some essential swimming prep under my belt, but today I was free to catch up on some much needed admin on the plot. All the spuds have been dug and bagged, the mid summer peas have been ripped up and the gasping [...]

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