Farm gate potato’s

[The Agrarian]

I don't see the issue with unwashed praitees. We got so fed up buying rubbishy balls of wax from the supermarkets that I looked for a grower selling from the yard. Not many around now, they grow mainly British Queens, though they're all gone and onto Maris piper or Keir's pinks. 20kg for between £5 and £10 depending on the praitee. I'm so glad to be able to buy a floury potato I hope to never have to buy in a supermarket again.

 

[Lincs Lass]

I don't see the issue with unwashed praitees. We got so fed up buying rubbishy balls of wax from the supermarkets that I looked for a grower selling from the yard. Not many around now, they grow mainly British Queens, though they're all gone and onto Maris piper or Keir's pinks. 20kg for between £5 and £10 depending on the praitee. I'm so glad to be able to buy a floury potato I hope to never have to buy in a supermarket again.

I don't like washed spuds ,they don't keep anywhere near as long as mucky ones ,,carrots the same but trying to find fresh pulled mucky carrots is ni on imposible

 

[Boohoo]

I don't see the issue with unwashed praitees. We got so fed up buying rubbishy balls of wax from the supermarkets that I looked for a grower selling from the yard. Not many around now, they grow mainly British Queens, though they're all gone and onto Maris piper or Keir's pinks. 20kg for between £5 and £10 depending on the praitee. I'm so glad to be able to buy a floury potato I hope to never have to buy in a supermarket again.

A lot of people only buy what looks nice and they haven't the ability to cook floury spuds. I wouldn't grow waxy spuds, British Queens, Kerrs Pink, Arran Victory (blues), King Edward, Dunbar Standards and the driest of the lot, Golden Wonder are all hard to beat.

 

[Bruce Almighty]

I would like to buy potatoes & other veg at the farm gate but you just don't find it around here. I hate seeing everything spotlessly clean in plastic.

Dad used to grow an acre or 2 in the late 70s - early 80s but it got to be too much trouble in the end. Same with hens and eggs at the door

 

[Ioan annwyl]

Have a look round your local supermarket, youngsters buying ready cut and prepared veg, even ready mashed potato. More time to be on Faceache WTF
.

 

[The Agrarian]

Have a look round your local supermarket, youngsters buying ready cut and prepared veg, even ready mashed potato. More time to be on Faceache WTF
.

Hilarious. Love that!

I've never said this before in public, but the majority of girls being turned out nowadays are worse than useless in the kitchen.

Tin hat on.

As for men - well we're coming from a very low historic base, so are actually getting better in the kitchen. .


NB

Nothing sexist in that by the way. I'm not saying women should by right have to spend any more time in the kitchen than men.

 

[David.]

How many young women in their 20s grew up cooking with their mother like girls of our generation did?
Last 20 yrs has been the age of the Ready-meal and the plastic tray from Tesco.

 

[multi power]

The problems with spuds are as already mentioned, people are far too lazy to wash and peel them, so they buy washed and plastic bagged, they taste revolting, they think spuds are no good and go to pasta and other fancy modern stuff

 

[Sonoftheheir]

We let friends have an odd bag now and again and everyone says they have never tasted such good potatoes.

Super market stuff grown on sand looks nice but has no taste.

It does seem potatoes have always been about £5 a bag at the farm gate!

A price we’d be very glad to get right now

 

[DrWazzock]

We washed the potatoes during a couple of years when they came up particularly mucky when grown on clay.

They were washed in a steady trickle of clean water not sloshed around in stale dirty water. We dried them immediately in high temperature air to reseal the skins then bagged them in the usual paper bags.

We found no difference in flavour and in fact they probably tasted better. You could pick one straight out of the bag and put it straight in the oven for baking. What could be quicker or more convenient than that. As the potatoes were clean it was easier to spot a bad one and grade it out. If anything they kept for longer.

The reality is that customers, especially the catering trade, don't want to spend time scrubbing hardened soil off their potatoes before they even get started.

The problem in supermarkets is the potatoes are in clear plastic bags which let the light in an green the potatoes. The plastic isn't often biodegradable either.

I agree that carrots don't keep well after washing and seem to lose their flavour. Brushed carrots are better.

 

[Exfarmer]

The danger with washing any potato is, if there is any possibility of any blight about the spores will be spread all over everywhere.
These potatoes will break down eventually, and anyone who has handled rotten potatoes will know is absolutely disgusting, which stays on the hand for days.
Washing potatoes is fine provided that they are eaten in a reasonably short time, which is not possibleif sold in a 25 kg bag.
When this is stored in a cupboard at the side of a kitchen disaster is likely to strike.

 

[Vincent]

This was my plot last year . Variety Rooster grown for our selves and some friends get a few bags. We just prefer to have our own as bough in ones vary so much. And I hate soapy potatoes. But there is a lot of work with having your own.

 

[marshfarmer]

I supply a few 'farm shops' who grow nothing themselves. Trade isn't what it was but they do alright. A guy from the city came to me in the autumn to try a few bags delivering out orders taken via FB, £8/bag delivered he's gone from nothing to 60 bags a week just like that. He's making way more than me out of them. I grow 90% frying material now, 10 years ago it was 10% frying material and 90% reds and nadine/marfona types for bag sales. I'll sell out of my non frying material easily this year again but I'm not planting extra, sales dry up after march when the 'new' foreign potatoes hit the stores I find.

 

[Kidds]

I usually buy washed potatoes from the supermarket (and note the price per ton!). I don't have any trouble with them keeping for weeks if not used up.
They taste OK to me but maybe I don't know any better. I do grow some of my own most years and although nicer than the bought ones (most things are) it won't stop me buying washed.
We buy in local grown unwashed for the farm shop and I think I'd still prefer the supermarket washed.

I find it odd that farmers on here are often running down supermarket quality yet it is farmers supplying them, but I do it myself when looking at stuff I grow. What goes out of my gate is top stuff but 3 days travelling the country and it would be brought down to supermarket grade.

I also note that the cheap mishapen odd sized produce is marketed as "greengrocer".

 

[marshfarmer]

Skin finish is the only thing that matters to Asda etc, who cares if there is a bit of scab or etc if it peels off easily enough, some of these new ones taste of either soap or nothing, but they yield 30 boxes an acre

 

[marshfarmer]

A freshly dug maris bard in early June is where it's at and I would always grow some just for that taste even if I only had a window box

 

[Exfarmer]

I think the taste problem often comes down to the use of the right potato.
We used too grow Nadine , a variety which can produce a huge crop but is very prone to greening as they grow close to the surface.
There were many complains about this variety for cooking and flavour. To be fair if you boil it is rubbish as it takes up so much water , but baked in the oven for a couple of hours slap on the butter and a decent bit of cheddar on top they are as good as you can get.
I suspect blasted in the microwave they are not so good.
I love Jersey Royals , but they must be cooked very soon after lifting to have the full flavour. The ones the supermarkets sell a couple of weeks after lifting have lost every ounce of flavour. if the skins don't wash off forget them

 

[SRRC]

IN the 70s and 80s we could sell up to 5 tonnes a week through the farm shop, above half in 25kg bags, by mid 90s that had dropped to about 2 tonnes a week with no more than 10x 25kg, the loss of dirty spuds was taken up by washed or even prepared spuds, the generations that bought them have now gone, my daughter or nieces would never buy dirty and the nieces don't know what to do if I give them some home grown earlies.

Exactly my experience, from several tons a week it's now down to barley 1\2 ton.

 

[Ramrod]

Never mind the spelling of potatoes, once when travelling near Sheffield I saw a sign that read HOME GROAN POTATOES.

 

[The Agrarian]

I clearly remember a lecturer telling our class back in '99 that the supermarkets want to sell soapy potatoes because they will stand up to the extra half hour's over-boiling that the average home cook will probably give them, and still come out in one piece.

Can't you just picture some prat taking a bag of potatoes back to the shop and claiming they are faulty, that when boiled they fall to bits?