It’s going to be barbecued lamb chops for tea tonight, and there is nothing like freshly dug new potatoes cooked with fresh mint, smothered in butter on your dinner plate.
“You bring the potatoes”, he said. It was Nick’s turn to cook the dinner at his house.
It’s going to be barbecued lamb chops for tea tonight, and there is nothing like freshly dug new potatoes cooked with fresh mint, smothered in butter on your dinner plate.
But I didn’t dig these from the Exmoor Studio Garden; I tipped them out. Yep, from a flowerpot!
The studio vegetable garden keeps me in fresh vegetables all year round, and I use the space in the raised beds wisely. Growing potatoes can take up room, which I tend to prefer to keep for my leaf vegetables, beans, and courgettes. So, I literally fill containers and pots with those potatoes that have gone to seed (starting to sprout) with everyday compost, and then set aside to grow. I’ve also used old buckets, large food tubs, anything with a little depth to it, and made sure there were some holes in the bottom and a few broken crocks for drainage. I think the biggest crop came from an old plastic dustbin… that yielded quite a few meals.
They are so easy to grow, and you can easily find a spot around the garden to put them while they grow, (I put that large dustbin behind the shed, and it grew very well). Keep them well watered, especially in the dryer hotter months and then once they have flowered and then leaves start to dye back and go yellow, this is a sign they are ready to harvest as you need them.
This current harvest is enough for a good dinner portion for us two adults, planted in a pot 23cm wide x 20cm deep. I planted one potato, sprouting in the fridge (I never buy seed potatoes) around April, and by end of June I have a pot full of baby potatoes which taste AMAZING!