the potato challenge - Abergavenny Food Fest
Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:40 am
I went to a very interesting session at the Aber food festival. Chaired by Charlie Hicks ( of veg talk fame) with Ian Prior a Herefordshire potato grower of some 800 acres and Andy Trimm a bio-dynamic grower and quotes ' agricultural advisor to Mony Don's TV series Growing out of trouble'. He harvests about 3/4 of an acre of spuds with a fork.
And they did a blind tasting of some Estima potatos they had grown using the bio/d vs commercial. Interesting ... I could actually tell which were which by looking as the bio/d ones had tons of wire worm damage. however tasewise and texture wise the commercial one 'won' ... probably 2 votes for the biod ones and around 25 for the commercial.
However I still don't think this is comparing apples with apples ... or spuds with spuds for that matter. As one is grown at 700 feet .. and the others in lowland S Herefordshire .. so 'terroir' as the French would say is completely different.
Anyway .... it was interesting . They also did some taste tests of some that Ian was trying for various supermarkets. None were spectacular.
Charlie Hicks was raving about Roseval ... which wasn't on Ian Prior's list.
Though none had come across the Sarpo range ... though I have to say tastewise I didn't grow them after trying them last year as the taste and texture weren't v pleasant. I think I would rather have 50% blight loss of a great spud like Pink Fir apple than loads of spud mush sarpo.
And yes ... this year was the worst on record with regards blight .. though we all knew that didn't we !
And also a note on greening ... which I had read somewhere else on the forum.
Ian mentioned that even highly ridged spuds suffered this year ... puzzled but thought maybe with the extreme amounts of rain we had some of the soil is 'washed' through and leaves very small gaps that allows light in .( not detectable by the naked eye) .. I guess that could make sense as particles are 'washed' away from around the spuds at a higher level ...
An interesting session !!
And they did a blind tasting of some Estima potatos they had grown using the bio/d vs commercial. Interesting ... I could actually tell which were which by looking as the bio/d ones had tons of wire worm damage. however tasewise and texture wise the commercial one 'won' ... probably 2 votes for the biod ones and around 25 for the commercial.
However I still don't think this is comparing apples with apples ... or spuds with spuds for that matter. As one is grown at 700 feet .. and the others in lowland S Herefordshire .. so 'terroir' as the French would say is completely different.
Anyway .... it was interesting . They also did some taste tests of some that Ian was trying for various supermarkets. None were spectacular.
Charlie Hicks was raving about Roseval ... which wasn't on Ian Prior's list.
Though none had come across the Sarpo range ... though I have to say tastewise I didn't grow them after trying them last year as the taste and texture weren't v pleasant. I think I would rather have 50% blight loss of a great spud like Pink Fir apple than loads of spud mush sarpo.
And yes ... this year was the worst on record with regards blight .. though we all knew that didn't we !
And also a note on greening ... which I had read somewhere else on the forum.
Ian mentioned that even highly ridged spuds suffered this year ... puzzled but thought maybe with the extreme amounts of rain we had some of the soil is 'washed' through and leaves very small gaps that allows light in .( not detectable by the naked eye) .. I guess that could make sense as particles are 'washed' away from around the spuds at a higher level ...
An interesting session !!
