The Carrot Tops Allotment Blog!

I’m finally digging out some lovely, fresh first early potatoes!  Potatoes are a great staple in the kitchen and they’re so easy to grow and they are so delicious.  When digging up potatoes, it’s often the case that you stick your fork into the ground and you end up with a potato at the end of it – this does happen from time to time and depending on your preference, this potato will be find if you were to just rinse it under the tap.

To avoid this, start digging about a foot away from the plant and dig deep. If you’re unsure as to whether you’ve managed to find all of the potatoes, dig and dig again – you won’t believe how many strays managed to grow through from last year.

I have to say that digging up potatoes is quite exciting and quite a tangible experience, all of that planting, weeding and mounding up has paid off – but the thing that has struck me about Pentland Javelin is the colour, they’re a bright, white potato that shines through the mud.

Growing potatoes is a great way of cleaning the ground – if you have a patch of ground that hasn’t been touched, is hard and just needs to be worked then planting potatoes is THE plant to grow. Mounding your crop and then subsequently digging them out will achieve all of the above for you.  The patch that I’ve grown my first early potatoes in admittedly is now in need of some nutrients – once the potatoes have been dug out, I will look to empty the compost bin and pile in some freshly sifted soil.

The other great thing about growing first, second and main crop potatoes is that by the time I’ve dug out the first early potatoes, the second early crop will be ready to dig out and so fourth!

I can not wait to get these in the kitchen and cook these with butter and mint. I’ll keep you posted on what recipe I come up with.