A few months ago, we had some potatoes that we hadn't used fast enough, and they had started to sprout in our cupboard. When I lived in Loughborough years ago, I loved growing potatoes, so I decided to do the same again here. We don't really have anywhere that would make an easy potato patch, so I got a large tough black bin liner, filled it with home made compost and buried some of the sprouty potatoes at the bottom. I made holes in the bottom of the bin liner, and as the potatoes grew, I filled it up with more and more lovely soil!
This is what they looked like when they were green and growing.
A few days ago I noticed that the foliage had died off and gone yellow, so that is harvesting time! I gently scraped away a few bucket loads of soil, and as if by magic, potatoes began to appear.. and more.. and more.. and more!!
I took all of the soil out of the now tatty bin liner, and pulled out more little treasures until I had a whole 6lb of our very own potatoes!!
I called my mum who was in town, got her to get the tram to ours, and gave her some of my wonderful harvest. She and my dad frequently pop over and help with the garden (they help with lots of other things too) so its really nice to be able to pay them back a little with some tasty, incredibly fresh home grown tatties!
Whilst my mum was visiting.. we decided to do something about the front garden. The evening primroses had taken over the world (er no sorry.. just the front garden) as you may remember from a post a few weeks ago about Triffids.
This is Triffids growing up and up and up...
This is the Triffids earlier this week! We do have a few other plants in our garden but the Evening Primrose really had taken over big time. Can you spot the buddleia flower peeping through?
My mum and I spent a very pleasant hour or so together. I dug the plants up, and she carted them off down the back garden to be composted when they have all wilted a bit! To finish off, my mum swept the path, and I hoed the garden to remove footprints and a few weeds.
It looks a lot more sane now! (Photo to come tomorrow).
I drove my mum home, and collected Douglas from work which is very close by. Both parents were very pleased with the potatoes, and also with the flapjacks I gave them too!
When D and I got home, I cooked tea for him.. Lamb koftas (minced lamb from Farmers Market) frozen peas (from Waitrose) cooked with mint (from our garden) and .. the peice de la resistance... a dozen tiny but incredibly tasty home grown potatoes!! He was a Very Happy Man.
YUM YUM YUM!
2 comments:
Sorry to hear you are off sick, but glad to note that Doug is well enough to have gone back.
Your tatties look wonderful. New ones straight from the garden need such a short time to cook - max 10 mins - and taste wonderful. We're harvesting ours too (as per comment sent a few days ago). I picked one (the firt) pea pod tonight, hoping it might be ready, and indeed it had 8 full-sized peas that were soooooo sweet. Yum.
It's amazing how much more detail you get when you click on them and get "the big picture"... how cool! I couldn't see that purple Buddha flower peeking out until I clicked on it, and there it was...
Cool tatties!
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