Kitchen Garden Blog

Purple power for two of the last three of my eight potato varieties: all maincrops, and the most colourful spuds I’ve ever grown (or eaten, for that matter).

Blue Danube: The first of my purple potatoes, this one comes from the Sarvari research station, originally from Hungary but now with an outpost in Wales. They’re churning out blight-resistant varieties at a rate of knots, starting with ‘Sarpo Mira’ and ‘Sarpo Axona’ – both of which I’ve had incredibly good results with (the year I grew Sarpo Mira it still stood proud right next door to a bed of ‘Desiree’ which had been reduced to slime by blight).

Blue Danube doesn’t get the Sarpo prefix as the foliage is only moderately blight resistant (though the tubers are fully resistant). I found though that this was still the only one left standing at the end of the season: hardly affected by the light outbreak of blight I had on my plot at the end of this season, in fact. They make spectacularly pretty plants, too – very statuesque at over a metre tall, with rich purple flowers with yellow hearts.

The tubers were, if I’m honest, not the best I’ve ever produced: on the plus side, they were a good size and very productive; on the minus, they were covered in scab, and the taste wasn’t exceptional (though they do hold their shape better than the Sharpies (Sarpo Mira and Axona) when cooked). And rather disappointingly, they do turn back to white in the saucepan, despite their pretty purple skins.

Yield: 5.1kg
Flavour: Ordinary
Verdict: 6/10
In a word: Underwhelming

Majestic: I got these from the potato fair and then read a list of potato varieties most susceptible to blight a few days later: ‘Majestic’ was right at the top. So that’s that, I thought. This old Victorian variety was bred long before the spread of blight across our veg patches, so was completely defenceless against it.

Well – I needn’t have worried. It was, undeniably, the first to go down to my late attack, with the haulms dying down incredibly quickly – one day they were there, the next they weren’t. But the remarkable thing was that the tubers were entirely unaffected: I did remove the foliage as soon as it died back, but I was bracing myself for some slimy smelly spuds. Nothing: they were perfect, big yields of hefty tubers bursting with health, and the only ones out of my crop that were entirely scab-free.

Majestic has therefore become my best potato of the year: unblemished, generous and even better, the flavour was absolutely superb, beating my other white varieties hands down (with the possible exception of ‘Mayan Gold’ – but that one takes such a long time to prepare that I’d have ‘Majestic’ instead any day). This is one which I shall definitely be growing again next year – though if it’s a bad year for the blight I may be eating my words instead of potatoes next season.

Yield: 5kg
Flavour: Outstanding: creamy, rich, delicious, just as a potato should be. Held its firm texture too.
Verdict: 9.5/10
In a word: Perfection.

Vitelotte: Oh wow. What a potato. Black as night, digging them up was like unearthing truffles from the soil. Cut them open, and their hearts are stained purple: but not as purple as your saucepan after you’ve cooked them. My husband actually called me in from the garden to watch them cooking: they turn the water bright green, and the cooked spuds themselves are a rich plum purple. The kids took a bit of persuading to eat their purple mash: but it did look spectacular. For wierd food, this takes some beating.

This was the oldest heirloom variety I grew this year. First grown in France in about 1800 (though the exact date is unknown), they are also known as Vitelotte Noire, or (less politically correctly) Négresse du Poitou. I have to say that unlike most French heirloom veg, the flavour isn’t the priority here: it’s not particularly remarkable. Nor is the plant: the second-fastest to succumb to blight after ‘Majestic’, and the smallish tubers were prone to scab. But for sheer novelty value – it doesn’t come better than this.

     Yield: 3.7kg
     Flavour: All right: nothing to write home about
     Verdict: 6/10
     In a word: Spooky.

So that’s it then: the verdicts are in. And so to the final conclusion:

The Crocus Kitchen Garden Spud Awards 2010

Best varieties of the year: Majestic and Kestrel

Fiddliest spud of the year: Mayan Gold

Novelty spud of the year: Vitelotte

Best blight resistance: Blue Danube

Runner-up: International Kidney

Best scab resistance: Majestic

Worst for scab: Blue Danube

Best flavour: Majestic

Runner-up: Mayan Gold

Most like a boring supermarket spud: Pentland Squire

The one I wouldn’t grow again if you paid me: Sharpe’s Express

Majestic and Kestrel are both on the list again for next year, but I’m afraid I’ve now developed a taste for trying out wierd and wonderful spud varieties. So I’m off to another potato day in January: and we’ll see what next year brings.

Tags: cooking, growing trials, harvest, heritage varieties, potatoes