All varieties except Charlotte are organic Scottish seed, certified disease free and sold loose at £1.80kg. Charlotte was only available as conventional seed but it’s so popular we thought we’d put up with that! It’s best to calculate how many tubers you’ll need in numbers of tubers rather than weight, although large ones can be cut in half before planting. Measure the length of your rows in feet and allow a tuber a foot for earlies and about 15 inches for maincrop. Keep in open trays in a cool, light space so the tubers grow robust, healthy shoots. If you plant in April you might need to protect the foliage from frosts and cold ground can hamper growth. Waiting until warmer weather in May can be worthwhile. Even June plantings can be successful if you’re running late. Water very well two or three weeks before you plan to start harvesting; the plants will be of good size and ready to concentrate on bulking up the tubers.
EARLIES (for June and July)
- Colleen. Popular, disease resistant Irish variety with a fine waxy texture.
- Maris Bard. Good flavour and a waxy texture that is very resistant to disintegration when boiled; Widely grown locally and one of our best sellers in the shop.
SECOND EARLY AND SALAD VARIETIES (for late July and August)
- Charlotte.( Not Organic this year) Our best selling seed potato. Excellent waxy textured yellow flesh when eaten early in the season, though it will become more floury if left to mature. Really tasty and will keep quite well into winter.
- Nicola. Our friends at Wortley Hall kitchen garden find Nicola works really well for them. Early, less susceptible than Coleen to scab, we’re going to try this in place of Charlotte this year at Sheffield Organic Growers
- Orla. Useful variety that can be dug as an early but bulks up well to produce good size bakers in August. Uniform, smooth and waxy. Good disease resistance.
MAINCROP (for late August onwards)
- Arran Victory. Our favourite Christmas variety. Tricky to boil but has a very tasty, white floury flesh for superb roasties, chips and mash. Beautiful purple skin.
- Cara. Popular and attractive white variety with pink ‘eyes’ . Mild flavour but versatile in the kitchen but a particularly good baker.
- Sunset. This is a replacement for the popular red Desiree, which we couldn’t get this year. It’s fair to say these ‘replacements’ don’t always stand the test of time but it is supposed to be more resistant to scab while retaining Desiree’s excellent flavour and versatility.
- Setanta. Very tasty, round shaped floury red. Superb roaster. Related to the excellent ‘Rooster’. Disease resistant, productive and an outstanding performer at the Sheffield Organic Growers site.
- Sarpo Mira. (pronounced sharpo) Super disease resistant red from Hungary. Floury, so good for mashing, roasting and fluffy bakers but can be tricky to boil.
*** Don’t forget we stock a wide range of vegetable seeds from ‘Tamar Organics’ and ‘Seeds of Italy’. Tomato, courgette and other vegetable plants will be available in April and May.
