PETER SEABROOK
Peter recalls a special potato-tasting day with Chas Hodges
PLANTS are great memory prompts, and the thought of potatoes brings to mind a day spent with the late Chas Hodges, of Chas and Dave fame, at the Thompson & Morgan Potato trials held at Capel Manor College several years ago. Chas was a lovely man: what you saw was what you got, and he gained relaxation and musical inspiration from tending his Stevenage allotment.
We had a cooked potato-tasting trial at that event, and choosing from a number of recent potato cultivar introductions was not easy. The whole occasion came to mind with an enquiry this month from an AG reader with two large allotments who sought advice on the best place to buy seed potatoes.
The reader had already done a lot of mathematical legwork, comparing mail order prices from several of the leading mail-order companies. It’s not easy because pack sizes offered varied, with Suttons and Thompson & Morgan offering 1kg packs, while EW King’s are heavier at 2½kg; there is a very wide range of cultivars listed, with post and packing charges to be included.
Apparently, Suttons and then DT Brown came out as the best value for money, but this is by weight and we plant by number. The reader grows mainly for baking, so is looking to achieve good size, but not overly large tubers of maincrop kinds.
The perfect planting size is a small chicken’s egg, and where garden centres allow self-selection of tubers you stand the best chance of picking out the best value for money. It is interesting to see the specialist brand Albert Bartlett, a three-generation, 60-year-old family business, is appearing across the catalogues and at supermarkets. Their Rooster is a good all-rounder while Vivaldi, with its velvety texture and sweet and creamy taste, is a great baker that doesn’t need butter!
“The perfect potato planting size is a small chicken’s egg”