For the 2013 season, I've gone in with two friends to place a large seed potato order. We'll be growing the following varieties:
Purple Viking (purple skin, white flesh)
Sangre (red skin, white flesh)
Warba Pink Eye (golden skin with pink eyes, white flesh)
Chieftain (pinkish red skin, white flesh)
Purple Majesty (dark purple skin, dark purple flesh)
All Blue (deep blue skin, deep blue flesh)
Yukon Gem (light yellow skin with pink eyes, light yellow flesh)
Yellow Finn (deep yellow/tan skin, yellow flesh)
Russet Burbank (russet skin, white flesh)
and six types of fingerlings:
Purple Peruvian
French Fingerling
Red Thumb
La Ratte
Austrian Crescent
Russian Banana
With this many varieties and somewhat limited space for a potato crop, I won't have too many plants of any one variety, but it should make for some beautiful, colorful dishes of potato salad and roasted potatoes!
They're due to arrive at the end of March so that they'll have sprouted and be set for planting out on the new moon, which falls on April 10th this year. I'm funny about planting according to the lunar calendar, in that I only do it for potatoes. This year's crop will be especially meaningful for me, whether I get them in the ground on the full moon or not, because the spuds'll be growing in my garden while we're in Ireland, and that will bring me great pleasure. I really mean that. I'll actually think of my crop while we're over there, and somehow, I'm sure I'll feel more connected to my farmer ancestors for having worked my soil and planted my tubers as they did long ago, with hope and anticipation for a great harvest.
Here's a shot of my raised pototo bed from May 22, 2012 (soil was 14" deep). I post this picture with hope and anticipation that the frozen, snow-covered tundra that currently is my backyard will actually melt and be ready to garden again in another six weeks :-)
That's alot of potato varieties. I hope they do well. Some day I will have to branch out and try growing some new varieties. I like the idea of purple potatoes. I seem to usually go with Maris Peer.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for writing! One of the most fun things about growing different varieties (I think) is seeing the different colored blossoms on the plants. It's also fun to stick your hand down in the soil not knowing what color potato you're going to come up with :-) The purple ones are really striking when they're roasted, esp. with carrots and white potatoes. They're not so beautiful when they're boiled and mashed, because they lose their vibrant color and end up sort of gray-looking. Not very appetizing.
DeleteI've never heard of Maris Peer. That variety isn't in any of my catalogs. Hmmm. I'll have to google it. I wonder if it's legal to bring seed potatoes home from Ireland in my luggage. I would guess not, LOL. The little beagles at the US airport who detected an orange in my bag upon my return from Italy one time would surely sniff out an Irish potato!
Do you have a large plot for potatoes? How many pounds do you harvest a year? I need to visit your blog again and see if you have potato pictures on there :-)
Thx again for writing,
Mb.