Saturday 29 September 2012

Mixed verdicts on Sarpo Mira

Just as a follow up to the last blog there have been several members who have now harvested their blight free Sarpo Mira potatoes and cooked them with differing comments on their performance when cooked.

I was personally disappointed with the way they broke up when boiled and those that survived were not the tastiest potato I've ever had being waxy and floury. I will try chipping them next or at least my head cook will and I'll report again before recommending whether our tenants grow them or not. Others have reported to me that they are delighted with their results. I'm sure at the end of the day, it will be down to individual taste but it is so rewarding to have a type of maincrop potato that will go full term without getting the dreaded blight midway through its growing season.This has been so frustrating for the last 5 years at least and everyone in Cornwall has given up trying to grow tomatoes outside the greenhouse for the same length of time. It seems 'something' is missing when we can't grow our Moneymakers, Big boys and Pixies.

The runner beans and squash family came good at the very end of the season and saved all the crops from being a total failure which bemused the new folk to the site this year when they were told when starting that they would be taking so much home that they had grown themselves when in fact nothing did well until very late. I won't use that phrase when introducing new members again!

I don't overwinter many crops preferring to leave fallow after incorporating plenty of good, well rotted horse and calf dung of which we are about to take delivery of 11, 3 ton trailer loads for all of our members that ordered, but I do like putting in a couple of rows of the Japanese Senshyui Yellow type. If we have a normal winter without too many hard frosts they produce very large bulbs and can be harvested a month earlier next year than normal types. I had one good year and one bad in the last two and is pot luck but the loss is minimal on the pocket if they fail.

Right, back to planning our Christmas dinner and prizegiving evening for our members, early this year on 1st December mainly because of the good deal we have been offered by doing so and because our chair and her hubby who is our site 'steward' have decided to take themselves off for a cruise for the middle two weeks of the the month and we need them to come (to pay for the wine).  

Saturday 15 September 2012

BLIGHT FREE POTATOES, YES WE CAN!

Back in June this year I was summoned to the gate to meet a very friendly chap who wanted us to trial some maincrop potatoes that he was going to donate to us. I was quite dubious as here in Cornwall we can never grow maincrop spuds due to the onset of blight which this year had even hit our first and second earlies a month earlier than normal. He assured us that they were as blight free guaranteed as you could get in the UK. I said I doubted they would be any good, we were a good 6 weeks late in planting and I KNEW they would get blight as it was turning out to be an exeptionally wet summer also with the humidity just right, (or wrong), the exercise seemed pointless.

I was surprised when he produced 2 hefty 25kg sackfulls for us to try. As they were free of charge other than giving feedback on our results, I decided to persuade several of our members to plant a few rows on any spare land they had left. This wasn't easy as it was peak season and although a 50 ft allotment is reasonable to grow what you need, it can be under a bit of pressure for space at times, certainly for potato rows. Around 12 of us, including myself, found room to plant a few rows and they were showing within 2 weeks.

Blighty weather continued through July and August but we tended these potatoes as normal, earthing up, etc. and the plants looked very healthy so we were keeping our fingers crossed that they would stay that way.

They flowered this month and one of our tenants could not resist digging some and we were amazed at the crop, photo here of three roots and vowed to grow these next year as we have been frustrated at our efforts the last 3 years.


The type are SARPO MIRA maincrop and if the JBA potatoes website is looked at, they have a good write up so we know what to do now and thank the friendly guy at the gate that day for nagging us to try them!

The proof will of course be when we see how well they cook and keep.

One pic of the three root crop and the other of how the remainder of the row looked this week. Pretty good.