The magic of growing potatoes never fades

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This article titled “The magic of growing potatoes never fades” was written by Allan Jenkins, for The Observer on Sunday 29th July 2018 05.00 UTC

There’s something primal about potatoes; about growing a staple food. When we started gardening here 12 years ago a number of the plots mainly grew mono-crops, mostly potatoes and leeks, maybe a few tomatoes. To an extent we’ve helped change that.

We brought in seeds bought and swapped and saved from throughout Europe, the Americas and India: amaranths, orache, shiso, painted mountain corn. We grew for beauty and flavour. We believed in variety. We sowed Danish dill, French chervil, Mexican coriander, Genovese basil, Neopolitan parsley, lost ‘Ildkongen’ tagetes from the Danish agricultural museum, flashback calendula bred in Oregon.

My dad taught me to crop only what you need for the meal

My old dad was old-school. He grew potatoes and peas, was almost obsessed with runner beans. From him I learned to crop only what you need for the meal – and to always remember mint. Potatoes particularly were magical. Hidden until unearthed, they were a lottery of love. We would add a sprig of apple mint, eat them simply boiled with salted butter with Sunday lunch, a special summer thing.

There is blight on the site, common in communal gardens. We lost tomatoes and potatoes too many times. It is hard to bear. So I grow tomatoes on the roof at home and sometimes potatoes on the plot.

I get them from seed swaps or an RHS spring fair: a few assorted first and second earlies: ‘Pink Fir’, ‘International Kidney’ (the Jersey Royal spud), ‘Ratte’, ‘Red Duke of York’. I chit them, plant them in March and wait. I don’t leave them long in the ground. I watch them flower, see them fall, and then I fork up enough for a meal or two at a time, for Howard and his family and us. Sometimes I can almost hear my mum calling us all in for lunch.

Allan Jenkins’s Plot 29 (4th Estate, £9.99) is out now. Order it for £8.49 from guardianbookshop.com

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