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.

Simple Red Currant Jam

This year I harvested over 1.2kg of fruit from one Red Currant bush! That’s the most I’ve ever had I think. I’ve made Red Currant Jelly before but I wanted a simpler recipe because I knew that I wouldn’t be keeping the jam for very long as it would probably get eaten in a matter of weeks. The bush was so laden with fruit that I even had to cut off some of the branches as they had bent over with the weight. The recipe was a simple one. Just pick the fruit (which took about half an hour) wash and weigh the fruit. I had 1.2kg of fruit. Put these, stalks and all, into a preserving pan. Cook the fruit for about 10 mins squashing the fruit to release the juice. Add the same quantity of sugar (1.2kg) and bring to the boil. Boil for eight minutes then strain through a muslin. I bought this stand for the job. And it worked well. Sterlize some jars in the oven and when the mixture is strained pour it into the waiting jars. Regarding the amount of sugar – it is alot. Certainly when you weigh it out it looks like an excessive amount. Now that I’ve tasted the jam I think you could get away with putting less sugar in. Maybe even two or three hundred grams less. The resulting jam I’m guessing will be a little more tart but personally I’d prefer that so I’ll be reducing the sugar next time. If you like your jam sweet then go for equal proportions.