Potato Fail

No, it’s not that they haven’t grown – if there’s one crop suited to our climate it appears to be potatoes, which may explain why they along with oats, kale and onions form pretty much the entire vegetable matter of the Scottish diet. And it’s not that they haven’t cropped – we’ve had the first few meals from our first earlies now. And it’s not that I planted too many – we could even do with a few more of the ones we’re digging up now. And it’s not that they explode when you try and cook them – they seem to be resistant to turning into starchy mush the minute they come into contact with boiling water. And it’s not that they don’t taste very good – they are in fact really delicious potatoes, which isn’t something I say that often. Definitely a keeper, and one to plant again next year and in greater quantities

And that’s where the fail part comes in, right from the outset, on potato day, which regular readers will remember is a bit of a scrummage. Reaching in to grab a handful of – more or less randomly chosen – seed potatoes, I chucked them in a paper bag and scrawled down what I thought was the name on the side of the bag, which is easier said than done on a bag full of potatoes in the middle of a crowd of people intent on hunting down the last pink fir apple. They were just really to make up the numbers and they sounded pretty good, from what I could remember. A first early, waxy, something like that. I’d look them up later in the catalogue, and check.

Only when I came to look them up I couldn’t find them in the list which might be because I couldn’t really read my scrawled  handwriting on the bag. A bit of googling, courtesy of ‘Did you mean’ suggests that these delicious and non-exploding potatoes might be Vales Emerald – but then again, they might not. Sigh. One day I’ll be a proper, grown up organised gardener… meanwhile, perhaps get your gardening advice elsewhere.