Last week I planted my first early tubers for May and now it’s time to chit the second early potatoes to harvest at the end of July. I’ve chosen to plant Maris Peer, salad potatoes that are said to have a light fresh flavour, as my second early potato.
Digging up salad potatoes to accompany that sizzling BBQ is something I look forward to every year – lightly boild and then garnished with button and fresh mint.
They’re quite a versatile variety and can be boiled, steamed or roasted.
Maris Peer has been around for years, but it’s being introduced into the market as a new variety because they’re best suited for the current UK climate. We have farmers in Suffolk, notably Matt Gregory for the Maris Peer potato hitting our shelves in the supermarkets.
Although, the term ‘Maris’ actually originates from Trumpington, Cambridgeshire which is a place steeped in agricultural history, even being recorded in the Doomsday book as being used for ‘ploughland’. Following its first mention in the Doomsday, various ancient barons, lords and landlords took over large portions of Trumpington and gradually forged it into the agricultural producer that we see today.
As before, chitting potatoes is easy – just leave them in a tray on a windowsill and let nature do it’s thing. I’ll look to plant these in a couple of weeks. I’ll give them a little less space than my main crop or my first early potatoes as I anticipate that I will be digging up these potatoes sooner than my main crop, meaning that I can make more use of the space to plant something else into the ground.
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