[Laura]

hail fellow allotmenteers
ian and i lifted our first spuds today, we were ever so excited and proud and are they ever delicious.  i think they are ulster pride but we did plant two varieties and i can't think what the others were called and we neglected to record which we planted where (idiots!!!).  i've made a mental note to keep proper records next season.
next year though i want to grow heritage potatoes and i'm wondering if anyone has any advice.  i was reading about a variety called epicure but the smallest quantity you can order on the site i was looking at was 1.25 tonne, perhaps slightly too many for our little plot.  i've seem some interesting varities with purple, blue and black skins - not all on one potato - part of me thinks i might just be getting ahead of myself but i do want to grow unusal things that can't be bought in a supermarket.
what in your opinions are the best flavoured spuds?  also any recommendations for mail order seed potatoes in manageable quantities.
Laura
ps on the subject of unusual stuff i'm attempting to grow salsify and a plant called good king henry, i'll let you all know how it works out...
...i grew asparagus peas last year, they grow like peas and taste like asparagus it said on the packet, they grew and cropped well but sadly, even though picked early, had the texture and flavour of wood

[noshed]

When I grew epicure they went to mush within seconds of contact with water.
This year I've found Jersey Royals to be very good - quite a big crop and scrumptious but we've eaten them all!

[shaun]

the best crop this year from the earlies was ulster cheiftan great crop and taste ,i had 4 rows and they have all gone appart from half a box that i am saving for seed next year,
also i grew home guard but the crop was very small (might have been lack of rain)
still got to dig king ed , desiree ,pink fir apple and sarpo ,thats my job for the next couple of weeks as the tops have nearly all died off now

[mum of 3]

hi weve been the same with not documenting what went where.didnt get any tatties in this year but plot neighbour gave us some beautiful "rocket" ones that came out of the ground almost clean.they were reallt tasty and fluffy

[Jake]

next year though i want to grow heritage potatoes and i'm wondering if anyone has any advice

I'm interested in heritage seeds too and will look this up but I think you'll find that the older strains are no different from modern ones in that all potatoes of the same variety are the same plant. Its a bit mind blowing really, they're not just related, they are actually different stems of the same plant.

Now I'm not sure why, which is why I'll look this up but this isn't the same state of affairs as growing things from heritage seeds.

Will be interesting though. I'm sure you can get heritage variety, just not sure how far back in time you want to go. Originally spuds came from south america and grew at high altitudes where viruses and fungus struggle to survive. This suggests to me that if you get a very old strain of potatoe it will be more prone to disease. Unless you live on top of a mountain.

[wellingtons]

... as earlies and they were lovely.  Very clean and almost perfectly round!

I've got Desiree (I think!) as a main crop, they're good, cropping well.  And also Pink Fir Apple as a salad potato ... very odd looking, not brilliant quantities but gorgeous tasting.

I also bunged in a few Pentland Blue ... I think they're a heritage spud.  Very odd ... they're purple underneath the skin but when you cook them the purple disappears.  Taste is good, but don't boil them, they turn to mush!  Best chopped into bite size pieces and roasted with their skins on in olive with a few snips of rosemary and 2/3 whole cloves of garlic, bashed.

[Martin]

next year though i want to grow heritage potatoes and i'm wondering if anyone has any advice.  i was reading about a variety called epicure but the smallest quantity you can order on the site i was looking at was 1.25 tonne, perhaps slightly too many for our little plot.

If you can get to one of the potato days held around the country you might be able to get Epicure and other heritage varieties. I got my potatoes from the Hampshire Potato Day this year. They have Epicure on their list here as well as many other varieties. And you can buy small quantities.