Harvesting Highland Burgundy Red

I planted my Highland Burgundy Red Potatoes back in April. Today, I harvested the first ones. The plants had flowered and they were getting big enough to start flopping over onto my Lettuce so I thought it would be a good time to start the harvest.

I recently bought a vintage Potato fork (with flat tines) for this very purpose and couldn’t wait to give it a spin. It seemed to work – I didn’t spear any, in any case. The first glint of purple was quite exciting too!

Once I brought them in (and they caused quite a stir in the kitchen too) I washed them and scraped the skin off. Or should I say pushed the skin off because it came off very, very easily. Then I boiled them with a sprig of mint. Served them with salt and butter and watched them disappear.

I had heard that this particular variety wasn’t that tasty but they tasted great. I’m of the opinion that anything that comes directly out of the ground and into the kitchen is going to taste good. At least better than they would if you bought them, right? And I just love the fact that you can’t buy these in the shops but you can eat them at chez Plot. Love that.

Just Doing A Spot Of Planning

I thought I would sit down with a nice cup of tea and my gardening notebook and do some planning. I don’t know about you but I encounter the same problem every year. I get too excited at the beginning of the season and plant up my whole garden with all the early season plants (Peas, Onions, Broadbeans, Lettuce etc) and then whehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifn it comes to putting the later season plants in (Pumpkins, Squash, Cucumber, Tomatoes etc) I have run out of space.

To compound the problem early vegetables like Radish, Spinach and Lettuce start to go over leaving holes in my garden that are not big enough to house say a Pumpkin because they are surrounded with plants that take a long time to grow (Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower to name a few). I need a plan.

I find that traditional rotation and grouping vegetables by type doesn’t work for me in such a small space. Plus, my kitchen garden IS my garden so I want to avoid the ‘allotment’ look.

It’s still testing me, but I’ll let you know when I come up with something. Does anyone do anything purposeful to avoid these issues? Now back to my to plan.