Potayto Potahto

It was worth growing veggies for a year just to see the joyous look on S's face as she pulled potatoes out of the patch like a child finding Easter eggs! The harvest of potatoes this way is amusingly called "Bandicooting" in honour of the digging habit of the little Aussie bandicoot.

The treasure:

I think (!) I planted Nicola, Desiree and definitely Dutch Cream potatoes.

The treasure chest:

This was from light digging alone. I have not dug up the whole patch yet. I can't quite bring myself to do it and yet, some potatoes are so ready, they are beginning to sprout new plants! Even so, we have already harvested nearly 10kg!

And the taste test? Potatoes steamed lightly with a dash of butter and salt - ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! The wierd thing is I am getting tastes that I remember as a kid. Just goes to show you how bland a lot of produce has become with hybridisation, long-term refrigerated storage, etc. - even within one generation.

So why aren't Dutch Cream potatoes grown en mass? Is it because of less yield? Poor storage? It puzzles me. These potatoes are so yummy that I literally can't stop eating them every time a batch is cooked.

Plus they are so easy to grow. I just made sure the soil was heaped up and straw added on the top and sides of the potato patch to keep the light out so they don't go green. I didn't even bother watering them that much aside from the rain. I did put some chicken poo on the patch as an experiment and this was probably the result :) :

But all-in-all fun to grow and great to eat ... and arrange into patterns :-)