First potatoes - plot to plate

Yesterday was a busy allotment day - at least for J who spent about 5 hours up there in the end, mowing, weeding and tidying - I joined him about 3.30 to do some picking and give him a lift home. In addition to some lovely flowers and a few more peas, we also managed to pick a couple of courgettes and some onions plus, most importantly the first of our potatoes. Importantly, because whilst relatively cheap to buy the taste of homegrown fresh from the plot is wonderful and the last few batches I have bought have been really quite ropey and not kept for long at all. This batch is called Home Guard and is a first early we're trying for the first time. We grow using the no dig method, earthing up with compost and mown grass on a layer of card and compost on top of our sandy soil. It produces really clean spuds with minimal disturbance of the soil so it maintains its health and helps it retain moisture. If you aren't familiar with No dig growing I really recommend checking out the You Tube channel of Charles Dowding.

Today we ate some of them - they held their shape well when boiled and are just the right balance of floury and waxy to enjoy this way. A nice simple lunch with our peas and beans, shop bought carrots, chunks of feta and black pepper. Yum!