Today I bring you a tuber-themed giveaway, courtesy of the folks at Wiggly Wigglers garden supply.
One of the things I’m most excited about growing this season are potatoes. Earlier in the month I purchased a Wiggly Wigglers Maincrop Taster Pack of “heritage potatoes”, older varieties of potatoes that you don’t normally find in the supermarket. This pack includes:
- Dunbar Rover – Bred in 1936 by Charles T Spence of Tynefield Farm, Dunbar and is very rare, due to low yields. Rover’s tubers are oval with white skin, snowy white flesh and medium deep eyes.
- Highland Burgundy – Dates back to at least 1936, when it was used to add appropriate colour to a meal for the Duke of Burgundy in the Savoy. It is mostly burgundy red inside with a definite ring of white flesh just under the skin.
- Pink Fir Apple – A waxy potato, originally imported in 1850, kept solely by British enthusiasts for decades because of its very fine flavour. The tubers are long, narrow and famously knobbly, often with side growths. The skin is part pink/part white and the flesh is yellow.
My purchase was taking a while to arrive, and when I asked Wiggly about it (on their highly entertaining Twitter feed), they sent me another. Both packs eventually arrived, leaving me with more potatoes than I have room in the garden to grow (or room in my stomach to eat). So I’m passing on the excess to you, hoping to spread the joy of growing potatoes far and wide!
If you’re a little hesitant to grow potatoes, let me tell you, it’s super easy. I did it for the first time last year – grew them in a big pot in the garden. So really, anyone with just a little bit of outdoor space can do this. All you need is a big pot or potato grow bag and some soil. These can be planted until late April, so you have plenty of time to get them in.
Check out the BBC for a step-by-step guide: How to grow your own potatoes.
FYI, Wiggly Wigglers aren’t paying me to do this. But I do want to give them props for being an awesome company with great customer service (especially from whoever’s manning/womanning the Twitter feed). I also really liked their packaging! This was my first time buying from them and I’ll definitely do so again.
How to enter the giveaway:
To win the potato seeds, all you have to do is leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner at random on Wednesday, March 30th.
Because these are quite costly to ship, I can only offer the giveaway to UK residents. Sorry compatriots!
Tell me something you love about potatoes, or gardening, or anything really. Got a good potato recipe? A potato horror story? Tips on growing potatoes? I’m all ears (and eyes).
Hi I came across this on twitter – I follow wiggly wigglers.
I have also subscribed to your blog – I like gardening blogs among others
My allotment has been a bit under-visited this year so far – work, family, trying to move, life etc – I need to get down there and start doing stuff!
You're right, growing potatoes is pretty easy – put them in, earth them up (although I have had good results without earthing) and make sure they're watered during growing
best
Crispin
How lovely to give away your extras! Wiggly Wigglers are fab indeed – I've bought loads from them, mainly seeds, bokashi composting bran, and flowers for gifts.
Hi Monica! I'd love your spuds! I could do a swap with you for some interesting looking squash I am growing?
Gen
That's very kind of you. Always interested in growing some different potatoes. My tip is (and to be fair it's not that practical for most) is to get a load of seeweed onto or into your potato bed – potatoes love seaweed.
What a lovely thing to do, regardless of who wins I would like to thank you for brightening my day with a reminder of how nice people can be.
I would love to grow some Highland Burgundy, they certainly sound different from what I have grown in the past.
I found this page via the Gardeners Corner forum, you might just be getting famous!
Hope you all get bumper crops this year,
Simon, Manchester.
Potato! 🙂
Great idea – in the wiggly spirit – hope I win!!
My favourite thing to do with potatoes is make them into pizza bases! Just boil up a good handful and when soft mash, then add enough butter and flour until it all forms together into a ball. At this point add in garlic, herbs or anything you fancy to spice it up a bit. Then roll it out into a buttered baking tray, cover in tomato and/or garlic paste and then add whatever you like as toppings.
Great dish to use up bits and pieces from the fridge and cupboard! Cook it for your Mum at the weekend!
Simon, from Oxford
@ubiquiallotment
You all are so sweet with your thoughtful comments. And it's so nice to meet so many fellow veg gardeners. I've picked the winner, to be announced shortly… stay tuned… and hopefully see you around again… be it here, the twitters, or maybe in a veg patch near you? 😉
grew my first set of spuds last year, just Rudolph potatoes, i am eager to try the heritage ones as they apparently taste better than the standard ones… however i cannot find them in the shops so i’ll have to grow them (best part)