Saturday 15 July 2023

From the Potatoes That I Didn't Plant ... and the Cucumber That I Did

 


Last night, just in time for our tea, I pulled up the first of our potato plants, not one planted by me but a lovely healthy looking volunteer left unintentionally in the ground from last year.

This was it in the central section of this bed just over a month ago, by last night it was twice as tall as it was in this photo, and although it never actually flowered the greenery was starting to go yellow.

It was time to see what we had!!

There was a grand total of 3lb 2oz, which is not bad at all for what I think was two little potatoes left in the soil from last year ... and no work, other than a bit of watering from me. 😀


I washed them and divided them into half for each of us, and we both made meals that made the potatoes the star of the show for our teas last night, we also each have enough for another good sized portion tonight ... well we might as well eat them while they are nice and fresh.


I boiled all mine up last night, so I have the other half ready cooked for tonight, Alan just cooked half of his and saved the rest.


I made myself a nice simple tea, making good use of all the leftover things that I had in the fridge to compliment the potatoes.  Isn't it a good feeling when all those little tubs of bits and bobs get used up in one fell swoop.


And guess what ...


... I could not resist putting the four teeny, tiny potatoes that were too small to cook into a pot of soil.

It will be interesting to see if we get anything from them ... but hey,. waste not want not.  😉

Oh, and I forgot to mention that while my potatoes were cooking Alan came in with our first little cucumber, he wanted to have half with his tea, so I cut it in two and he went off with his portion.  I ate mine straight away while the potatoes bubbled on the stove.  It was very tasty, but it just didn't last long enough to get it's photo taken!


Sue xx



16 comments:

  1. Can’t beat free anything. I keep trying to decide if to plant some of my smaller ones for Christmas.

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    Replies
    1. I love free! It might be worth a shot, for half an hours work you might have some lovely homegrown spuds for Christmas. It's never really worked well for me though, the dampness seems to make them a lot more 'blighty' than the summer potatoes.

      There ... we've gone and done it, we both mentioned Christmas!!

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  2. I just harvested my first batch of spuds. I hadn't thought of planting the "marbles" - but I will now! Thanks for the continued inspiration. I've been given a cucumber plant. How long should I expect them to grow? I'm presuming they won't be a foot long like the greengrocer sells.

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    Replies
    1. I thought it was worth a shot, they were so small they weren't worth dropping in the pan to cook, they would have gone to mush. I love the term 'marbles', I'll have to remember that from now on.

      I would say to always harvest them a bit shorter than the ones you buy from shops, more of the length of a long courgette is about the best size ... and of course the more you pick the more you will get on the plants.

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  3. Lovely potatoes! I can almost taste them! And so much nicer when you’ve grown them yourself. You can use them to accompany all sorts! I love cucumber too! 😁

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    Replies
    1. It's the start of things to bring in from the garden to eat in meals, instead of just things to pick and eat while I'm gardening. :-)

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  4. You've inspired me! I want to grow a potato patch now :)

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    Replies
    1. Even a big pot of potatoes is worth growing, they take up such minimal space and are delicious. Which reminds me this weeks harvest will be from the big plant pot that I dropped three potatoes into.

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  5. Wow! I am inspired as well!

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    Replies
    1. Go for it, even a supermarket potato left to chit for a few days and then planted will give you enough for a proper meal or two

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  6. That's a very good haul of potatoes from leftovers really. I bet they were delicious.
    I'm hoping to cut my first courgettes and pick my first tomatoes later on today (Sunday). Exciting times. :-) xx

    ReplyDelete
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    1. They were gorgeous. :-)

      My tomatoes are all green at the moment, but they are there and that makes me happy! My courgettes on the other hand are having a very lazy year, no fruits and only small plants this year.

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  7. The potatoes look delicious and your meal absolutely scrumptious! We had a couple of stray potato plants at the allotment and left them to grow on. They provided a couple of 'free' meals. Our mini cucumbers in the garden cold frame are doing very well too. I've picked 4 so far, 1 to be cut sometime this week and several tiny ones developing. Strangely, they seem to like the cool wet weather. The whole plant collapsed in the heat last year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sometimes the strays turn out better than any you plant don't they. I had a couple of potato plants grow in the compost heap one year that gave us some beautiful potatoes.
      Yes, my cucumbers are doing really well this year, I may be overrun soon as I have four plants all flowering away beautifully. I have just picked two more this morning, they were hiding underneath some foliage and are about eight inches long. My snacks for the next few weeks will be cucumbers I think.

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  8. Not bad at all! Much better than our crop :)

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    Replies
    1. The next harvest will be from the the plant pot. I am interested to see what 3 sprouting supermarket potatoes will produce just in a largish plant pot.

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