Sunday 10 May 2015

First Early Potatoes From The Poly-tunnel.





 It's been a miserable week here on the smallholding in Ireland.  We seem to be getting April showers in May.  We decided to cheer ourselves up on Friday after the election results in the UK and Chelsea winning the title.  So we picked the potatoes growing in the poly-tunnel.  Some people would say:

"Let them grow a bit bigger."

Small is beautiful and absolutely delicious.  So we steamed them on top of the range.  The month of May and the range is lit and I am still chain sawing logs for hot water, cooking and heat from the radiators.
A plant pot full of new potatoes.  We got three/ four (I gave some to my brother) meals from our early potato crop.  I also hand picked 11 snails in the poly-tunnel this morning.  The hedges are growing mad too.  We heard our first cuckoo yesterday.


23 comments:

  1. Nothing like the taste of your own potatoes. Yum. The first bite as your teeth go through the skin of the potato is divine, with lashings of butter. I feel a Homer Simpson moment coming on (drool from lips).

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  2. Hi Sol. I rubbing the skin off a new potato with my finger nail. They are delicious when they are steamed and the butter melts on them. Thanks!

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  3. How did you cook the snails Dave, delicious with garlic butter?
    When did you plant your potatoes? ours are still not large enough they got set back by the frost, we resorted to buying some new potatoes imported from Italy as I'm now very fed up with last years spuds.

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    1. I believe you can eat the common European garden snail Anne. Didn't you once say that you owned a snail farm?

      We planted our new potatoess about 12 weeks a go. Even the minute ones are edible if you steam them. The one's outside aren't doing so well. The straw became very wet and heavy and they didn't like it. I removed the straw the other day and they are starting to recover.

      Thanks!

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    2. Yes, we did have a snail farm when we lived in Wales, I still have a soft spot for them, they get removed and put in a place where they can't do damage. Slugs on the other hand are fair game, they eat our plants we wage war.

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    3. They are a nuisance this year aren't they? I throw them into the hedgerows for the birds.

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  4. Thanks for visiting my blog Dave.
    Your potato photo brought back such memories.
    As a child I lived in Lincolnshire - always good for potatoes - and we had a large garden. My dad always grew some early potatoes and the very first lot would always be picked in the early evening, put in a bucket, hot water poured over them and then dad would stir them with the copper stick and rinse them until they were clean. We would have them for supper smothered in good butter. Memories, memories.

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    1. Hi Weaver. Thanks for your childhood memories from your Lincolnshire days. I remember visiting West Cork in the sixties and early seventies. Every farmer grew a field of vegetables; potatoes, cabbages, onions, carrots, Cow cabbages and Mangels for the cattle and the horse. Wonderful memories. Thanks!

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  5. Have to agree with Sol's comment about a Homer Simpson moment when it comes to new potatoes Dave. Weather here has also been absolute pants, I think the combination of a few days of constant rain and strong winds may have done the only mature tree, a glorious Acer, to much damage for it to recover!
    Football I don't follow I'm afraid, far too girlie for moi but the result of the general election certainly did feel like a kick in me bollocks!

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    1. Hi John. It's been terrible weather here also. I think new potatoes and strawberries are superb. Not together though.

      The general election result was terrible. Anybody but the Tories.

      Thanks for making me laugh.

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  6. porch pictures up for you Dave! lol it is a work in progress. Will be shopping the house for items to soften it all.

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    1. Will pop over to your blog and have a look at your new bungalow Sol. We watch all the renovation programmes on television. Sounds like you're having fun.

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  7. Yum! Nothing nicer than freshly dug home grown spuds Dave :o)

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    1. Yes CT you can't beat freshly home grown spuds.

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  8. Those taters look good dave! Nothing like the first harvest!

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    1. Yes Kev they tasted really good. I love new potatoes early in the summer before it gets too hot and you don't want to eat them.

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    2. I always want to eat them!

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    3. We always seem to make enough food for an army Kev. We end up cooking too many potatoes especially on a really hot summer day.

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  9. I love new tatties with lashings of butter. :-) Beautiful day up here in Tipp today Dave.

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  10. Hi Deb. I love peeling them with my thumb nail to show their freshness. Beautiful day down here in West Cork too. Thanks!

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  11. Those potatoes look very tasty......makes me regret that we didn't get any into the ground this year.

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    1. You can still plant lots of other kinds of vegetables Vera. Swedes the size of tennis balls are delicious. Thanks!

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  12. Tootled over here from Kev's at An English Homestead, I have yet to get potatoes to grow for me. Thinking next spring I will try again. :O) Going to plant earlier than I have tried in the past. Now sweet potatoes we can grow here.

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