Potatoes are easy to grow. If you were a potato, you could grow a potato. It's that simple. All that one needs is some dirt.
I started to chit our seed potatoes last week, identifying the more rotund end of each tuber by its preponderance of eyes and placing them upright in an egg carton so that their rounded, many-eyed bellies are facing up. Careful to label each variety and note the date, I have put them in a light, cool place (on the mezzanine windowsill of the squash court), where they will be forgotten for the next 4-6 weeks as they sprout.
When selecting seed potatoes at a shop, give them a good squeeze through the bag to feel for firmness. Avoid those that have already started to sprout white shoots, but if you discover a few at home, simply rub them off; they won't come to anything desirable, and will soon be replaced by robust shoots that are green and pink, or sometimes even a delectable purple in the case of kestrel.
I've known friends to grow potatoes in old compost bags, in large tubs and old pails. We have space in the vegetable garden for some good old-fashioned Victorian rows, so I've selected two kinds of new potatoes (charlotte and nicola), a first early crop that is good for roasting (arran pilot), and another two varieties for later deliciousness. Our maincrop is going to be supplied by Billy the potato man in Norfolk; a friend of my husband's who is recommending Jazzy and sending us no less than 10kg of seed potatoes. To put this in context, Karen planted about 7.5kg in total last year, of three different varieties, and there were potatoes coming out of our ears. Faced with 10kg of just the Jazzy maincrop, she suggested using only a quarter and selling the rest as seed potatoes. However...
I think the soil has been delivered from the council while we've been away, to fill the new azalea bed I've made on the drive, and it is devoid of nutrients (having been composted in such a large pile at such a great temperature), so I thought... why not plant it with 7.5kg of seed potatoes?
A little manure on top of that from the cows, some leaf mould, and a garbage can or two of ash from the woodburner and we should have some jolly nice medium to plant the new azaleas in next spring.
I'm sure that the idea will be pooh-poohed for one reason or another (not enough direct light, not suitable for the approach to an old country house, out of keeping with the stone walls and the finials on the gateposts), but I might just do it anyway. This is my first occasion to grow potatoes, after all, and what is life for but to undertake experiments?
Especially slightly bonkers ones.
