Fork it! - February 2012
One potato, two potato, three potato, four...
Last year Angela grew eight different varieties of potato with varying results. Here she shares with us the highs and lows in her vegetable patch.
Considering that the potato is such an important part of the British diet, it may come as a surprise to learn that for the first 150 years after its introduction from South America, it was regarded as an unwholesome vegetable. Even as late as 1861, Mrs Beeton warned in her Book of Household Management that potatoes were “suspicious; a great many are narcotic, and many are deleterious”. The potato is part of the same family as deadly nightshade and in its wild state it is full of poisonous glycoalkaloids, but these had been “bred out” of the tuber by early Peruvian famers over many centuries before its introduction to Europe. The problem may have been that, out of the 150 varieties that the Incas enjoyed, only a few types (and even these not necessarily the most flavoursome) were tried out on European palates.
During Victorian times, many more varieties of potato were bred and introduced in Britain, but with the advent of post-war intensive farming, the number of varieties available for sale dwindled to a small number of all-rounders such as “Maris Piper” and “King Edward”. When I lived in Peru in 1983, I was amazed at the different varieties of potato on sale and that recipes would be very specific about the type needed –e.g. yellow and waxy, or white and floury. Fortunately, with the rise in interest in cooking and the renaissance of the “grow-your-own” movement, there is now far more choice available in the UK, both at the supermarket and the garden centre.
Last year I tried out 8 different potatoes and here are the results. The two “first earlies” I trialled were “Winston” and “Lady Christl”. Both showed no sign of slug damage or blight, which was hardly surprising as we had had such a dry, warm spring, but were very low–yielding, again probably because there had not been enough moisture. The flavour was very good however and I would try “Lady Christl” again.
The “second earlies” did not have particularly high yields either. “Aphrodite” produced large tubers, “Juliette” small to medium-sized oval tubers and both were healthy and slug-free. The latter was described as a salad variety, but I have found that, as it is not waxy, it is useful as a general boiled potato and suitable for winter dishes. The “Ratte” suffered some rot and slug damage and I think it is not as tasty as “Pink Fir Apple”, although far easier to clean as it is not as knobbly! I grew “Belle de Fontenay” too, on the recommendation of TV gardener Sarah Raven because of its supposed superior flavour, but it became badly slug-damaged and infected with blight. The two main croppers were a definite success. We are still finishing up the purple-skinned, white-fleshed “Arran Victory” and enjoying them mashed or roasted. However, it was “Sante”, which, with a good yield, large healthy tubers and a fine flavour certainly lived up to its name and accompanied our turkey on Christmas Day – what higher accolade could you give a potato?
