Foremost first earlies: 29 lb 7 oz (I found a few more this morning)
King Edwards maincrop : 51 lb 9 oz
Desiree maincrop : 41 lb 1 oz
Total : 122 lb 1 oz
If we eat potatoes twice a week and use one pound per meal (which I do), then a year's supply would be 104 lb, and we've comfortably exceeded this. If I get the storage right and the blight doesn't ruin the lot, then I've successfully grown an entire year's worth of spuds, which makes me very happy :-)
Sacks of spuds destined for the store room. Those that were dug too soon, or that I stuck the fork through (rather a lot of the Desiree) are in the kitchen, for using soon or turning into frozen chips.
Wow! That's a lot of potatoes - I think our total yield will only be about 20lbs this year - 120lbs is a massive amount! Will you keep any for seed potatoes for next year?
ReplyDeleteI was planning to keep some for seed, but since I got blight I'm not so sure. I don't know whether I should switch to blight-resistant varieties. I'll be planting in a different bed as part of crop rotation and I suspect the new bed will be less prone to blight (more air movement) - the scientist in me would like to know whether it's actually better, which I won't be able to tell if I change varieties.
ReplyDeleteIf this lot store OK, then I've got a good harvest in spite of the blight, so maybe it's not such a big problem if I get it again. On the other hand, if they don't, I'll have nothing but a stinking rotten mess by Christmas and will definitely want to try a different variety next year! I think what this comes down to is: If the spuds store well, I'll stick some of them in the ground next year. If they don't I'll buy new seeds of different varieties. I'll buy a few new anyway, just to be a bit more adventurous than sticking to the well-known kinds I grew this year.
Wow! That's quite a haul! To tell the truth I've never had good luck storing potatoes. They always seem to sprout on me no matter what I do. Maybe you'll have a better technique than I do.
ReplyDeleteThat's fantastic - well done Rachel and how exciting! I'm growing maincrops for the first time this year - Kind Edwards, and we've had loads of amazing second earlies which have been divine - no storing those beauties; they get eaten as soon as I dig them up ;) Good luck with the storage; have you heard of clamping? Seems like a great idea if you have the space.
ReplyDeleteI have no special techniques, EcoCatLady, apart from checking them frequently to remove any that have gone rotten. I have heard of Clamping, Mrs Green, and in theory I have space. Unfortunately that space is currently full of a lot of other stuff at the moment. Also, the frequent checking would be more trouble if they're all packed down in the clamp. I'll see how I get on with sacks this year and maybe clamp next year.
ReplyDeleteThose that sprout will be brought out into the daylight for a bit before going back in the ground ;-)
I'm with EcoCatLady--my spuds always sprout. Super irritating.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I would really like to make pillows out of those awesome burlap sacks!
This is one of those 'divided by a common language' moments. I have to remind myself that when you say 'pillow' we'd say 'cushion'. We reserve 'pillow' for the ones you lay your head on at night, and I wouldn't fancy one of those made out of sack cloth!
ReplyDelete