Wow, I love digging up potatoes. Especially when they look like this! I grew a selection of colourful tubers sent to me by Carroll’s Heritage Potatoes, as well as my all time favourite, Pink Fir Apple, at my allotment this year.
I grew these on top of grass à la no dig, as per my last post, initially covering them with about five inches of compost. However, I hardly earthed them up (mainly due to my lack of energy to haul bags of compost to the site) and just left them to do their own thing all summer. Buoyed by my Charlotte potato success, I thought I’d see how they were coming along after all the rain (and finally a bit of sun). Although the yields are not quite as large, due to my lack of earthing up , I’m still really chuffed with a decent crop of my beautiful multi coloured tubers (and my knobbly Pink Fir Apples). The larger purple potatoes on the left and in the top image are Arran Victory, named in 1918 in celebration of the ending of the first world war. They have a high dry matter and are good for everything except boiled potatoes. The dark pink are Red Duke of Yorks (1942) and the lighter pink are Red King Edwards (1916) -both good all rounders with their skin happily retaining their colour when cooked.
Last night I made lilac mashed potatoes out of the Salad Blue Earlies (cross-section above), which according to the Carroll’s website is a novelty potato dating back to the early 1900’s and not a salad potato at all! Very tasty, but slightly disconcerting alongside my pinkish salmon!
I’m never really convinced about the value of growing main crop potatoes when my growing space is somewhat limited, but these heritage potatoes make my heart sing, so I will definitely be continuing my ‘no dig’ experiments in a more ordered fashion with some of these good-looking lovelies next year.
Out of my shed 
It’s good to see your spuds have done so well. I only grow early salad spud such as Charlotte partly because Blight is such a problem here in Wales and partly because of a lack of space. My Charlottes didn’t do so well this year. I had more plants than last year but less potatoes. When I was digging them out the roots of the plants had rotted so no great surprise they hadn’t performed and not really a surprise that the weather had had an impact. I do like the idea of trying a few different spuds next year though so will make a note of these varieties.
Hi WW, Just checked my pics and I did grow these on grass too, so possibly that’s why they’ve not succumbed to the wet weather this year so much as spuds in the ground. Mind you, your cut flowers look gorgeous!
I haven’t tried the Arran Victory potatoes yet, but looking forward to seeing if they taste as good as they look and I really like the fact that the pink skins remain on the other potatoes, so will report back when I’ve cooked all these up.
I like the possibility of selecting dramatic colours to compliment the purple spuds and to amuse the supper guests. Emerald green spinach and bright yellow squash would look rather stunning on the plate. Good flavour?
Hi Sue, Yes, great flavour. Will you be growing these next year for colourful dinner parties then?
We ate your Pink Fir Apples last night, Naomi: they really are good. They have a wonderfully waxy texture, which you so rarely find in new potatoes from the shops.
Hi Nick, Glad you enjoyed the potatoes. Yes, they’re delicious and really worth growing-could even get a few dinners from a growbag in the back garden. Will save a few seed potatoes for you for next year if you like?
Yes, please!
Will do! And will drop a few more round so that you don’t have to wait until next year for another taste of these delicious tubers!
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Even though we didn’t get a bumper crop of potatoes this year, I definitely want to try some of the coloured varieties next year… Nice to hear the flavours are good as well!
Hi Anna, yes great flavours, although have yet to cook the Arran Victories. Will be roasting them tomorrow so will try cooking some with skins on and peel the rest to see how their purple skins fare in the oven.
[…] no dig method worked equally well with some gorgeous heritage varieties too (Arran Victory above), this time planted on top of soil at my allotment, again, with absolutely no […]
Great idea! By the way, being from the U.S, I’ve never heard of the term”earthed up”. Could you explain please? Thank you.
Last year I did an experiment putting maincrop potatoes much closer than traditionally recommended – 40cm within row and 50cm between rows with Desiree. The yields were very good earthing up with combinations of comfrey leaves, grass cuttings, horse manure and soil. So you may want to try planting them closer together if your space is limited……
i tried no-dig early potatoes this year and traditionally planted Desiree main crop further up the bed. The Estima 2nd earlies, no-digged, got very bad scab probably due to the incredible drought between mid-April and mid July in NW London, whereas the Desirees had almost no disease at all grown more traditionally. Of course, if you have hose access for regular watering, no-dig won’t be a problem, but I think the one downside of the technique (I am a disciple of Charles Dowding, lest you wonder) is if there is a very dry spell, since the potatoes’ roots may not penetrate deep enough to find water if a very dry spring and early summer occurs…….
Hi Rhys, yes, I agree. Watering with potatoes, whether ‘no dig’, in pots or in the ground is always the issue. Thanks for your very apt comment. Naomi