Early potatoes

I've only just got round to digging over the bed that had potatoes in it last year, and I can't believe how many I missed! They're all growing now, of course, and I had intended to leave them to develop, but that proved impossible for most of them as they were just too tangled up in the weeds, so I dug them up. I was even more surprised to discover that most of them already have little baby potatoes developing underground.

I dug the plants up carefully so I could tell which spuds were the old seed potatoes and which were the babies. Usually by the time you harvest potatoes, the seed tubers have gone soft and slimy, but at this early stage they're still firm and look just like any other spud. They're not good to eat though. All their reserves have gone into making a new plant and they're crunchy (why?) and tasteless, if you accidentally cook one and eat it.

Somehow at this time of year it seems worthwhile preparing potatoes that are barely bigger than peas.

First harvest of potatoes, served with wild garlic mayonnaise

This makes a much better lunch than rose bay willow herb!