The potato harvest for me, is one of the most exciting harvests of the year. The satisfaction of digging around and searching for those little golden nuggets sure makes growing your own completely and utterly worth it. The thing with potatoes (and most root vegetables) is that you don’t know what you’ll be harvesting until it comes to the day when you pull the plant up, so it’s hard to tell if everything’s growing ok or not. I’ll admit that I was a little impatient and ‘tickled’ the soil around one of the potato plants a few weeks ago to see if there were any potatoes growing. I was pleased to see a little golden potato staring back at me so I quickly covered him back up and remained patient until today!
Really I could have harvested my International Kidney potatoes a week or so ago, the plants have completely died back now so the actual potatoes won’t be growing any bigger. Not to worry though as potatoes, especially early potatoes, store very well in the ground. In fact they will store better in the ground than anywhere at home which makes them a perfect ‘harvest when you need them’ crop. I was rather pleased with my little harvest of new potatoes from one plant, I’ll admit that there wasn’t a huge amount but they were perfectly formed, blemish free and I rather proudly grew them all by myself!
To celebrate the first potato harvest we decided to cook them straight away in the little potting shed and eat them as a lunch time treat. A quick clean, a 10 minute boil and the potatoes were ready to eat along with some freshly picked broad beans and some shop bought bacon of course. You really can’t beat homegrown new potatoes, they sure tasted delicious!
I managed to film a short video all about growing, harvesting and cooking those potatoes. I’m hoping to edit it and upload it tomorrow if all goes to plan, and I’ll also pop the recipe on the blog too for you all to enjoy too.
8 thoughts on “Homegrown Potatoes!”
Loved this post! I could almost taste the potatoes.
I’m looking forward to the ptotato video. I’m in NW Oregon (USA) and our climates are similar. I think my potatoes are ready too. Interesting that they might store better in the ground. Any special preparation to do that…..Do you cover them with anything? Your talented photographs would shine in a a magazine like the British “Country Living” that I’ve seen.
Congratulations on the wonderful harvest. Is that pretty stack on the ground just from one plant? You are making me want to grow potatoes but I don’t have the heart to collect and squish the Colorado Potato Beetles it would bring to my yard. It was a garden chore from my youth that I detested, lol. Looking forward to the video and hoping you address the broad beans as well. They look so interesting, I am guessing it is what is called a fava bean here in the US. Have never tried them and should. Do you eat the lining around each bean or discard that? Recipes I’ve seen online make it look like a tedious vegetable to prepare. It must be well worth it because there are so many gardeners on the web who adore them. A wide, green shelled bean that is common here is the lima bean and hubs does not like it so I won’t bother growing that one. Hoping your bean doesn’t taste the same. Have a great weekend.
I much prefer, however, that we get to see your lovely photographs here on your personalized site…..don’t go corporate owned…..it is ruining the world!
Your harvest is beautiful! Home grown taters are delectable. My spring crop got planted late due to soggy wet weather, then harvested too early due to very hot temps and my impatience so it wasn’t very big 😕. Luckily I can plant more for a fall harvest here in Georgia. Hopefully they will do better. Your creative use of space in your allotment is inspiring. Looking forward to your video!
I love early potatoes but I haven’t tried International Kidney yet. Yours look very tasty so I might just have to give them a try!
Yay for potato harvests haha! I just harvested my first ever potatoes too, and although mine all turned out tiny and there weren’t very many at all, I’m so proud of them haha! I totally had to take a little peek (I’m so impatient with root veg too) to see if anything was actually happening and pulled up a baby potato a couple weeks ago and had it for dinner that night. I don’t usually like potatoes but it tasted amazing! I can’t wait for the rest of them.
I always love your videos so I’ll have to have a good old catch up soon!
xo April
Try boiling an onion with the broad beans and potatoes, gives the beans a sweeter flavour. Did this for a snack up the allotment with my ‘charge’ last weekend. He loved them.