| Mr Potato Head |
| Friday, 27 July 2012 14:09 |
|
Get prepared to radically increase your potato knowledge, learn how to prepare an amazing Eastern European recipe and just how easy it is to grow these things in your own backyard… Given that potatoes have such an ubiquitous presence in cuisines all over the world it's humbling to think they only made there way to England a few hundred years ago. Like so many of our edibles, the wild version of our beloved spud originates in Peru and Bolivia. Here it could be grown right up to the snow line, way beyond the realm of wheat and other staples. Ireland enthusiastically planted potatoes in the 1700s, as a few acres could feed a family and their livestock. This self sufficiency strategy worked a treat until in 1845 a fungal disease - potato blight - wiped the crops out and reduced the Irish population by 1.6 million people over the following decade. A sobering warning that biodiversity relates to human cultivated plants - not just in nature...
The potato's botanical name Solanum Tuberosum informs us that they're part of the tomato, capsicum and eggplant family - something to keep in mind when rotating crops to avoid diseases building up in soil. Of course if this surprises you, get ready to be completely blown away. While hunting for some images for this article, I discovered a nursery in the U.S. that combines the potato and the tomato! Imagine tomatoes in summer and harvesting your spuds in autumn! I haven't seen one of these in the flesh and will probably experiment a little later in the year at grafting them together. In the mean time I'm left to ponder…is it a Pomato or a Topato?
Enough talk, lets get some dirt under our nails and learn how best to grow some of your very own spuds. Potatoes are frost sensitive so if you sow them this weekend the risk of frost will be drastically reduced by the time they start to produce foliage. I'm describing the traditional hilling method as I've found it to give me the best yields year after year. Potatoes like soil on the acidic side so ideally your pH should be around 6.0. Being tubers all of the potatoes grow underground, so start by digging a nice deep and wide trench.
This helps to explain the old adage that growing potatoes as a 'pioneer' crop helps to break up the soil for future cultivation. As 80% of the potatoes grow above the original planting depth, I'm afraid it's YOU that break the soil up, but a neat saying just the same. Place your whole spuds (don't cut them up - too much surface area for disease) in the bottom of the trench about 40cm apart and make your rows about 50cm apart.
Backfill over your potatoes with about 15cm of the soil previously removed. And that's about it! Your spuds will start to shoot in a week or two depending on temperature and rainfall. This time of year watering isn't necessary however if you're growing in the drier months give a good weekly soaking. Continue to hill up the soil around the base of the plant which will encourage it to keep growing taller and providing more room below the surface for potatoes to grow. This hilling will also stabilise your plants.
Now your potatoes will be ready to harvest when the plant has matured and started to die off. Depending on the time of year it may even flower. Another cheeky technique is called 'bandicooting' where you sneakily dig down and take the odd spud from time to time. In fact that was the inspiration for writing today's article about potatoes. I didn't have enough spuds in the pantry for the below 'pierogi' recipe so I had to bandicoot a few even though the plant isn't fully mature. You'll also find growing spuds in the no-dig method makes bandicooting even easier as you're moving straw and compost, not soil.
How to make Pierogi Pierogi can be loosely described as dumplings or ravioli. While the shape is consistent the fillings vary and combinations include: mushroom, pork and cabbage, cottage cheese and potato and even seasonal fruit. The below recipe is called Pierogi Ruski or Russian Pierogi where the hero ingredient is of course, potatoes. I've made these in Australia in Polish households and in Poland with only minor differences notable. They are great at this time of the year when a rainy afternoon makes them an ideal comfort food to enjoy making and eating with friends.
Ingredients Filling Dough I've never measured the amount of water but I'd guess at about 300ml and you add it slowly. Although the ingredients are almost identical to pasta, the dough should be a bit softer. With the wonders of the internet I figured it best to leave the method to an actual Pole! Sure it's in Polish, but you're clever folks. Enjoy! Or as they say in Poland "na zdrowie"! Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site |
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