Forking Potatoes
As the Irish would say….
Back on the kitchen garden again the other morning, I wanted to finish the last of the large raised beds before the end of the week and this one, theoretically should always have been the easiest to dig over.
Last year it was full of spuds (English for potatoes) ‘Sarpo’ to be precise and I was pretty pleased with the results. That said I am not bothering with any this year, I’ve got my sights set on bigger and more interesting things which I shall reveal later (when I know they’ve worked!)
It was a glorious morning, bright sunshine and clear blue skies, the first time it has been clear enough to try and photograph the resident Sparrow Hawk hovering above in search of rabbits and it doesn’t show up! After a cup of Moroccan mint tea I was mentally prepared for the dig ahead, less so physically. Now I know how the Ancient Egyptians must have felt like carrying all of those stones for the pyramids and after getting sunburnt and sweaty from digging up leftover potatoes I looked and smelt like one too.
For those who have never grown potatoes before there is nothing particularly difficult about it. You buy potatoes, stick them in egg trays, let them grow antennas, place them in well prepared ground, pile over soil, water well and then harvest. The difficult part is the harvesting. The art to spud gathering is to use a garden fork and gently lift the plant out, revealing the crown jewels underneath.
That’s easier said than done, any honest gardner will tell you that they invaribly lance two out of every ten potatoes with their fork. This figure can often be much higher but seldom lower. They will also tell you that they only ever lance the best ones, not the scabby, hollow ones that are only fit for pig swill.
So today I found that I had left more potaoes in situ than I thought, you never get them all but this year I’ve been a bit slack. What was my potato lancing ratio? About six to ten! In my defence I didn’t have any clue as to where they were when I began digging but it was still annoying, so much so that I threw my gloves in and went to the gym!
