Small spuds

[Bryang]

Interesting observation, Bryan.

I have tried growing earlies under clotches, but the resulting crop made me decide not to bother growing them again.

 

[Goran]

We grow I think more than decade " Kennebec " variety. Excellent taste, keeping in winter not worse than " Desiree". So we abandoned " Desiree" immediately. High yields from small patches. Though we grow it kms afar from nearest garden, had not much problem with diseases except Phythophtora infestans and Alternaria solani. Always amaze how the heck the Colorado potato beetle find potatoes even kms from nearest garden and surrounded with forests, devilish little creature..

 

[Apple]

On small spuds....

What is the variety grown in the Canaries... small roasted with a spicy herb coating.. delicious

 

[Bryang]

On small spuds....

What is the variety grown in the Canaries... small roasted with a spicy herb coating.. delicious

When I was on holiday on Tenerife approx 10 years ago I was intrigued by the way the "growers" used to collect the water from the highlands and chanelled it down the mountain/hillsides in troughs and pipes. Spoke to a few veg growers and asked what types of spuds they grew. They grow many types of potatoes, such as Papas Negras, a black variety , that was a direct descendant from spuds brought over from south America a long time ago.. They also grow a variety that they export to the UK as a early variety called, (translated) King Edward. Just been in touch with a old mate living out in the Canaries he thinks, from your description the dish you are referring to is "papas arrugadas con mojo" . Hope this helps.

 

[Somerford]

Well Lidl were selling small roasting spuds today for a paltry 14p a bag of a kg

they looked fine - made up for my poor crop !

 

[Antipodes]

Well Lidl were selling small roasting spuds today for a paltry 14p a bag of a kg

they looked fine - made up for my poor crop !

I once read that it's most worthwhile growing a high value food crop...potatoes and onions don't fit that category here.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I once read that it's most worthwhile growing a high value food crop...potatoes and onions don't fit that category here.

I grow asparagus. By June we are sick of it . The bees love the flowers though
We also had a go at Physalis and they did very well and one year I thought I might put a couple of Tomatillo plants in the poly tunnel .....Hilarious. Who knew they grew like triffids; make nice pickle though.
The onions and shallots are always nicer than shop bought ones

 

[Antipodes]

I grow asparagus. By June we are sick of it . The bees love the flowers though
We also had a go at Physalis and they did very well and one year I thought I might put a couple of Tomatillo plants in the poly tunnel .....Hilarious. Who knew they grew like triffids; make nice pickle though.
The onions and shallots are always nicer than shop bought ones

Some cultivars of fruits, that are generally cheap enough, are worth growing despite what I said initially. For instance, if you buy apricots in a supermarket, they are generally a cultivar which can bounce around the supermarket floor and take a bit of bashing in transport. Flavour not there sadly. Grow a Moorpark apricot and you can taste what I mean. Bruise easily, last just a couple of days and only ripen properly on the sunny side....but what a flavour.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Grow a Moorpark apricot and you can taste what I mean. Bruise easily, last just a couple of days and only ripen properly on the sunny side....but what a flavour.

My neighbour shares hers with us and you're right. Plucked straight off a warm tree in the sunshine the flavour is heaven

 

[drex]

For the time spent and the rent, economically, it is not worth growing stuff on my allotment. That is not why I do it. I enjoy the work and chats and cups of tea. I particularly love the soft and tree fruit, asparagus and my fresh figs. I also know where it comes from and how it has been treated.

 

[Goran]

Our potato of this season

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I thought I might put a couple of Tomatillo plants in the poly tunnel .....Hilarious. Who knew they grew like triffids; make nice pickle though.

SWMBO did the same - we had bagloads of the little balls of bland - think next time I'll just try eating the leaves

 

[pargyle]

The onions and shallots are always nicer than shop bought ones

Yes ... I never grow enough of them - we always run out. I think soft fruit is good value to grow, I struggle with crops in the cabbage family - almost impossible to grow well on our heavy clay soil and the only things that really get the benefit are the caterpillars ! I'm not sure about whether to continue with potatoes - decent ones in the shops are very cheap and don't taste that much different to those I grow. Parsnips are fabulous at present and the taste surpasses anything in the shops. I don't have a polytunnel and I find salad crops in the ground are devoured by the snails and slugs ... I constantly battle with them.

I am seriously tre-thinking what I am going to grow next season. Onions, Shallots, spring onions, parnsips, sweetcorn, squash, cucumbers, one courgette plant !, broad beans, runners (fewer plants), french beans, sweet potatoes in tubs, beetroot and my established soft fruit I think is the allotment plan at present.

More of what we like and what is tastiest compared to the supermarket stuff. Tomatoes at home in pots and perhaps some chillies in the greenhouse. Been at it over 13 years now and I am at last coming to terms with what works and what costs more in energy and effort and real cost than shop bought and fails to please.

There is nothing tastier than a fresh raspberry straight off the cane or loganberry or blackcurrant home made jam ... and you just can't beat home grown strawberries or an early stick of forced rhubarb in a crumble but ... some things just don't work.

 

[Bryang]

Have tried to grow asparagus four times over 12 years . Each attempt failed. Last time I tried it was in a cold frame that had a 2 ft layer of sand mixed with some stable manure. Put the "lights" on to over winter the plants, made sure there was plenty of ventilation. They started to grow in the spring then faded out in the summer. No sign of any disease.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Have tried to grow asparagus four times over 12 years . Each attempt failed. Last time I tried it was in a cold frame that had a 2 ft layer of sand mixed with some stable manure. Put the "lights" on to over winter the plants, made sure there was plenty of ventilation. They started to grow in the spring then faded out in the summer. No sign of any disease.

It’s the first thing we got in when we moved here. A raised bed dug a good two feet deep with the clay soil replaced by a mix of 50% B&Q compost and horticultural grit. We planted three year old crowns and took nothing the first year. Every autumn the bed gets a six inch top dressing of our own compost after the ferns are cut down.

 

[Bryang]

It’s the first thing we got in when we moved here. A raised bed dug a good two feet deep with the clay soil replaced by a mix of 50% B&Q compost and horticultural grit. We planted three year old crowns and took nothing the first year. Every autumn the bed gets a six inch top dressing of our own compost after the ferns are cut down.

All the growing plots in my allotment are in the form of "raised beds" They are all contained within paths, each path is lined with flagstones and are filled with rubble from the allotment, I then covered the top of the paths with a stone dust and cement mix. The area was being used by the council to dump flag stones and kerbstones when they were updating the pavements in the village, many years ago it was the site of a mouse/rat farm and some allotments. A local coal merchant/general dealer also used it to store the "coal dust" that he collected from the coal deliveries to the local miners, which was tipped onto the roads, a ton at a time, outside the colliers homes. Across the lane there was a builders yard that had a large mortar mill in it. The left over mortar at the end of the day was also tipped over the allotment. When my good friend Elwyn took over the area from the council, he recruited me to help him clear it up. He borrowed a jack hammer from the colliery to brake up the block of mortar which the council took away in a 3 ton truck. They also removed 4 lorry loads of rubble and we sold 10 tones of flagstones and kerbs to a local salvage company. We used tis money for fencing and and some decent topsoil. Hard work but worth the effort. I have added some photos from this year to give you an idea of how the place looks

 

[Amari]

Yes ... I never grow enough of them - we always run out. I think soft fruit is good value to grow, I struggle with crops in the cabbage family - almost impossible to grow well on our heavy clay soil and the only things that really get the benefit are the caterpillars ! I'm not sure about whether to continue with potatoes - decent ones in the shops are very cheap and don't taste that much different to those I grow. Parsnips are fabulous at present and the taste surpasses anything in the shops. I don't have a polytunnel and I find salad crops in the ground are devoured by the snails and slugs ... I constantly battle with them.

I am seriously tre-thinking what I am going to grow next season. Onions, Shallots, spring onions, parnsips, sweetcorn, squash, cucumbers, one courgette plant !, broad beans, runners (fewer plants), french beans, sweet potatoes in tubs, beetroot and my established soft fruit I think is the allotment plan at present.

More of what we like and what is tastiest compared to the supermarket stuff. Tomatoes at home in pots and perhaps some chillies in the greenhouse. Been at it over 13 years now and I am at last coming to terms with what works and what costs more in energy and effort and real cost than shop bought and fails to please.

There is nothing tastier than a fresh raspberry straight off the cane or loganberry or blackcurrant home made jam ... and you just can't beat home grown strawberries or an early stick of forced rhubarb in a crumble but ... some things just don't work.

I often wonder if home grown crops really taste better or if it's wishful thinking. time for a controlled trial?

My motivations on my 250m2 allotment are growing crops that are very rarely treated with pesticides or herbicides (we are surrounded by agri-business. Most fields are cleared with glyphosate between crops).
Also reducing air/road miles of supermarket food.
Also the creative joys and chance to experiment with different cultivation methods and crop varieties.

PS: 3 asparagus beds. It doesn't grow very vigorously therefore bak-up needed

 

[Goran]

We grow the most of food we eat.. Trust me incomparable to taste or the nutrients. Sometimes from garden to table doesn't pass an hour. When I was studying there were some data about losing vitamins and other nutrients from picking vegetable till the consuming..
Lettuce we don't treat with any pesticide, also young scallions from our greenhouse are pesticide free. Scallions from greenhouse just melt in mouth how soft they are, while the bought in trade center I have to chew as a cow.. We treat with pesticide less in greenhouse than in the open. Tomatoes.. bought in trade centers are like chewing cardboard ( cause they are picked pale green and then later get red color). We harvest tomatoes when they are fresh, smelly and tasty - a LOT. Also peppers, in greenhouse they strive unremarkably, unfortunately as they grow fast in spring and full with juices aphids are attracted and I have to treat while they are still young. Also in autumn when temperature decline mottled shieldbug flow into greenhouse and if I want to prolong the picking time I have to treat with some insecticide, but usually till then we pick all what we need for conservation, storing and for making " ajvar" - we just remove peppers from greenhouse to avoid infestation with them..
Some of random thoughts..
I was in visit to France couple years ago.. I would become vegan there easily.. since the meat we ate there.. my stomach was like in spasms when I eat it there. Potatoes were decent.. Eggs were like the vampires sucked them prior.. Chicken meat You can chop with fork??? Cheese.. well I am not used to French cheese, I stick to our barbaric ones..
Maybe I am poor in money department, but I eat like a King.. Not rarely in same plate I have 11 different types of veggies ( even I am meat guy)..
Maybe I talk too much ( warm schnapps of our plums is bit too strong )

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have problems with whitefly in the tunnel if I’m not careful but this stuff from The Green Gardener sorts it.
I did try Encarsia but not convinced

 

[pargyle]

I often wonder if home grown crops really taste better or if it's wishful thinking. time for a controlled trial?

My motivations on my 250m2 allotment are growing crops that are very rarely treated with pesticides or herbicides (we are surrounded by agri-business. Most fields are cleared with glyphosate between crops).
Also reducing air/road miles of supermarket food.
Also the creative joys and chance to experiment with different cultivation methods and crop varieties.

PS: 3 asparagus beds. It doesn't grow very vigorously therefore bak-up needed

Some things are remarkably different and better tasting .. sweetcorn straight from the plot into the pot far exeeds anythng you can buy. Broad beans - again fresh from the plot have an amazing taste compared to the ones that have sat in the supermarket for days. Runners that yuou pick when they are still young and have not achieved the leathery, stringy state that seems obligatory for ones sold in shops. Cucumbers grown in well fertilised soil. Parsnips - end of - so different. All soft fruit. Tomatoes.

There are other things that don't seem to much improved in home grown varieties ... swede - indeed, most root crops except parsnips, courgettes (although I grow them for their quantity - although after the first six weeks we usually run out of recipes to cope with the continuing glut and they are devoid of taste anyway !).

Some things I just can't grow - peas - something eats the shoots, carrots - hate the clay soil, most greens and cabbage related crops (insect and snail damage).

I think there is a feel good factor in eating what you have grown, knowing where it has come from and that it is organically grown - sometimes being able to share your good fortune in a glut with friends and family - little goes to waste from my allotment.