Potato Tasting 2012

 

It started out as a dry if cloudy Sunday morning in September.  But by the time we had erected the gazebo, it was pouring with rain!  Nevertheless ten hardy tenants turned up with their potatoes and we set about sampling them.  In spite of a mostly disappointing potato harvest this year due to the poor summer, we had a good variety of potatoes to taste; about twenty of them.  Not surprisingly the distinctive taste of Pink Fir Apple was very popular, with a waxy texture which is good either hot or cold.  It keeps well.  Nicola is sometimes described as the “allotment” potato.  It is a good general purpose maincrop potato.  The flesh is a pleasing yellow which looks good in salads, and in a wet year the potatoes can get quite big.  We also tried Sarpo Miro which is a second early or maincrop potato.  It proved its resistance to blight here this year, gave a good yield and slugs don’t like them.  We all retired under the awning for delicious homemade savouries and hot drinks and looked at the bewildering variety of seed potatoes being offered in the seed catalogues for next year.