Sunday 24 February 2013

And so it begins

Last year turned out to be a little hectic. The terrible weather meant surviving at the allotment, trying to grow what you could rather than enjoying the summer days. Perhaps unsurprisingly this meant few posts for the blog. Now as the days lengthen and the temperatures increase it's time to start growing once again. Hopefully this year will be more like the summer I dream of. As always the first thing to start the year is the potatoes being laid out to chit. I'm going to try them in the shed this year in the hope they'll stay a little warmer in the still freezing temperatures. This year I'm going to be growing: - Charlotte, always successful and always delicious. - Sarpo Mira, blight resistant and grew well last year. I'm enjoying using the stored tubers for roast potatoes - Mayan Gold, new to me. I'm hoping for some excellent roast potato from this one. - Vitelotte, another new one for me. Known as the truffle potato in Germany, I'm very excited to sample this one. For the first time I have bought all my potato seeds from Otter Farm. The seeds look excellent so I'm hopeful for another good year of potatoes (more on this later but I had an excellent potato year in 2012, despite the rain).