Between the showers

It's now nearly a fortnight since they started the hosepipe ban. I think every day since then it has rained, often torrentially. I see now some roads around the area are flooded. I'm not surprised. And yet they can still tell us there is a water shortage!

Between the showers yesterday, I went to gather the first of our own home grown new potatoes. I wasn't quite sure how to tackle the bags. In each bag we had placed 3 seed potatoes, but by now there is over a foot of soil on top, not to mention a jungle of greenery to fight through.

In the end I decided to try one of the first planted bags. I loosened the soil around the base of the greenery, then pulled. I ended up with a great deal of greenery & very little root. To the root were a few balls, mini-potatoes I presume, not even a quarter of an inch in diameter. I shoved my hand in the soil. I found something - one very soft squidgy mess that looked like it was a rotten potato broken in half. Oh dear. I tried again.

Eventually I found a couple of potatoes about half an inch in diameter. My heart was sinking. After all the Fox's hard work, watering, topping up with soil, removing the flowers before they turned to seed, giving them their daily pep talk and this was it!

I tried taking out another lot of greenery. One decent sized, though ominously dark, potato and a few more tiny ones. By then it was turning wet, so I decided to go in & hoped I had enough. I was only making up the quantity of the remaining few shop bought new potatoes we already had in. I duly scraped & scrubbed them. The one reasonable sized potato we'd grown turned out to be another rotten one. There still didn't look enough potatoes for the two of us for dinner.

The shower had ceased. I rolled up my sleeves to bare my arm (the one without the plastered hand at the end), & ventured out again to do battle. This time I pushed my arm deep into the soil. I was rewarded with something round & firm. I pulled it out. Sure enough a good reasonable looking potato. I tried again. Soon I discovered a whole layer of them, all healthy looking & sensibly sized. I took in the half dozen, scrubbed them down & added them to those already prepared. At last I'd found some good ones. Maybe the Fox won't be too disheartened.

So, come the evening, & much rain later, we got down to the important task of eating them. Delicious, though I must remember to cook them for less time than normal. They seem to cook quicker than the average shop bought ones. Maybe it's the freshness. They set off the spicy prawns & chorizo a treat & that's the main thing.

When I stop to think about it, it's not surprising that the potatoes lower down should be bigger. After all they have been in the soil longer. Next time I'm letting the Fox do the rummaging. They took next to no time to prepare - just a quick scrub, easy to do even if time is short.

And the Fox has got longer arms!