Have you got yer spuds on? – Potatoes part 1

I think potatoes were the most satisfying thing I grew last year, so easy to grow and when they are ready it is like digging for treasure. The only thing I did wrong with these last year is to not grow nearly enough.

It’s time to get the seed potatoes ready, it’s called ‘chitting’, but all that involves is keeping them in a warm (but not hot), dry, airy place so they start sprouting … so basically what happens when you leave your eating potatoes in the cupboard too long! I keep mine in a tray in the bottom of the pantry, it seems to work well enough on my bag of supermarket spuds so why not. Other suggestions are an egg carton on a windowsill, they need a bit of light but not too hot. It is important that the resting spot you choose is dry otherwise you will end up with mouldy potatatoes. 



Chitting the potatoes before planting

Do try and buy properly certified seed potatoes rather than using potatoes from the supermarket, as they will be treated for diseases etc and be a bit stronger for producing lots of potato babies. I’ve got some Jersey Bennes and Agrias going at the moment for new potatoes and everyday potatoes. I might try and get another couple of more interesting varieties to go in a bit later on.

Place potatoes in a single layer on your tray/egg carton and try and get them eye side up (eyes are those little knobbly bits). After a couple of weeks they will start sprouting, you want three good strong sprouts of about an inch long. If the potato has any more than three sprouts you can just rub off the extras.

Don’t have a veggie patch? They sell growing towers and plastic tubs that work well for potatoes, especially the new potato varieties. When we were living in a flat in London we had a tiny outdoor space which was basically the roof of an extension on the flat below that was overlooked by the tube tracks. My husband grew a lovely lot of potatoes in one of those plastic tubs with some holes poked in the bottom.  Potatoes grown in containers tend to be a bit paler and thinner skinned for some reason, which is probably why it suits new potatoes better.  They are still great to eat though.

Posing with the London potatoes shortly before harvesting,
the wall at the back is the tube line.  And below is some of the harvest! 

My only warning is, that if you are planting them in the garden, choose a spot where you won’t mind potato plants appearing the following year! We were finding potato plants EVERYWHERE in the garden last year, even in flower beds and the front garden. I left a couple to grow and got a great harvest from those so that was a bonus, but unless you thoroughly dig down and out you are pretty much guaranteed to find a plant growing there next year.
To be continued ...

Halloumi - Brunch of Champions

We made Halloumi yesterday.  We've made it a few times now and it's the easiest and least time consuming of all the cheeses we've made so far.  It is very similar to making Feta (see here), but seems to take less time and less attention.  The best thing is that it can be made and ready to eat in an evening, hooray!

Spring - the promise of good times ahead

My plans for a weekend in the garden have been rained off, it's a bit yuck out there.  Can't say I'm really complaining about a rainy Sunday on the sofa though. 

There are signs that Spring is on the way though ...

The Magnolia is blooming

The Onion Patch

For someone that is not that keen on onions, I’m sure growing a lot of them!  I do use them in cooking a lot, but as more of a hidden vegetable in things like Bolognese or Chili.  It’s not the flavour I don’t like, more the texture!  I could never eat a raw onion slice or bite in to a chunky bit of cooked onion, blech!  The milder spring onions on the other hand I’m quite keen on.

I spent this Sunday afternoon planting out the onion patch in the sunshine, I’ve now got Spring Onions, Shallots, Red Onions and the everyday Pukekohe longkeepers (brown onions) in the ground.  Onion seedlings are good to plant out now in August, and then again in April  (make a start in Feb or Jun if you are going to try from seed).

Garden design – planning ahead for a vegetable bounty

Happy New Year!! Well gardener's New Year that is. I've got a couple of gardening books that are basically my bibles for telling me what to plant when, they both start in August and today is 1st August! I certainly have that feeling of being about to start a brand new year of veggie growing, I'm excited!!



The blank canvas

I deliberately didn’t plant many winter crops, I wanted to reach the end of winter with more or less a blank canvas to start on.  We moved in to the house in June last year and by the time we’d unpacked and settled in, it was time to start planting and I kind of panicked and threw a load of seedlings at the veggie patch and hoped they’d stick, then I got given more plants and it just ended up a bit of a jumble and I kind of ran out of room.  Having said that most things turned out great, well perhaps except for the no-show parsnip and feeble cauliflower.