12 October, 2008
Among the potatoes lifted today were the last of the Red Duke of Yorks. The variety is a first early and ours had their haulms removed early in the season, keeping the size down but protecting them from blight. As Red Duke of Yorks don’t store well, they’ve stayed in the ground and been lifted as we needed them. With frosts just upon us, it was time to lift the remaining ones, select the best ones for seed for next year and then bring the rest inside for immediate use.
The Red Duke of York is all-round potato, but is at its best mashed, roasted or fried (making excellent chips). I also like to use the variety in pies as it has a robust flavour and slices hold their shape well. They can be used in salads, but as we grow Pink Fir Apples specifically for salads we don’t use Red Duke of York in this way. The variety has poor resistance to blight, which is why I removed the haulms when the majority of the tubers were about the size of a large egg.
That’s it for tonight. I’ll try to post details of the red potato, onion and cheese pie here tomorrow, and possibly the chocolate cake.
Go to bed! ……….and sleep well.
I love the colour of those spuds, bet they taste good.
Great photograph. The potatoes look like polished stones, or beads. Stark but lovely.
That makes me wish I had room for potatoes along with everything else I want to grow.
G’day Stoney, I have just planted some Coliban spuds and I am trying the method of planting in old tyres and building up as they grow. I have not tried Coliban before so hopefully we will have a tasty crop of this variety.
Your crop looks tasty and I can almost taste the chips!
We have planted Nicola, Coliban, Desiree and Sebago varieties, most in the garden, some in tyres. All the spuds in the garden have sprouted, but only one tyre out of four has sprouted plants in it. Interesting to see what happens.
The ones I planted int eh tyres showed little sign of life, until I had to move them and discovered some really super tatties