[drcath]

I bought some blue potatoes - Norwegian grown - from a local store. On the suggestion of a friend, I chitted seven and put them in a spare patch of ground. The soil's sandy and rather poor, so I wasn't expecting much, but all seven have emerged and look healthy - the stalks are a pretty purple colour, just for interest.

I've never grown blue potatoes before - any tips on how to care for them? No idea of the variety I'm afraid, although I'm tempted to call them "Norwegian Blue".

[digalotty]

as any other spud , cant see why they would need any special treatment , but im no expert

[Babstreefern]

Paint them brown, and lo and behold you have normal spuds

[Yorkie]

As digalotty said, usual rules apply I think.

If it's poor soil then addition of potato fertiliser or similar, and lots of water when tubers will be forming.

[Trillium]

I often grow blue potatoes, more commonly referred to as purple potatoes. They require no special care or storage treatment, but I find they're the first to start self-chitting in spring.

If you have a bit of old manure, they'd probably appreciate a light mulch of it.

[Ice]

Treat them as normal spuds but remember that they will be "Pining for the Fjords" so take them for a holiday before planting.

[drcath]

Thanks for the advice. We have plenty of manure here (thanks to the contributions of our three horses), so I will try a spot of that, plus plenty of water and let you all know how I get on.

Interesting they are purple in the UK and blue here in Norway. Must be a Viking thing.

[purplebean]

Interesting they are purple in the UK and blue here in Norway. Must be a Viking thing.

Trillium is in Canada   I would call them blue 

[Wombat18]

I harvested my first purple potatoes over the weekend, and very pretty they were.  I was sad to see that the purple went away when I boiled them as I was looking forward to violet mashed potatoes.

Does anyone know of a way to cook them which retains the colour?

[Goosegirl]

I'm growing Edgecote Purple this year as my OH wanted to try them. They have deep purple stems, but their colour when dug is more like violet so don't think they are the same variety you are talking about.

[Snoop]

I grew purple potatoes last year quite successfully. I've planted more this year, and sadly they're useless, despite more careful treatment on my part.

As for the colour, steaming proved best, but even then they go a disappointingly washed out greyish purple colour if overcooked. Mind you, the water was a bright bluey-green! One thing I never tried was frying them. That might work well.

[Babstreefern]

How about a Lancashire Hotpot with the spuds sliced on top?

[Yabba]

Does anyone know of a way to cook them which retains the colour?

Steamed?

¥

*edit
Ooops, should have read snoop's post first

[gillie]

The American internal airline Jet Blue serves blue potato crisps.  No, they are not dyed, they are made from blue potatoes, and they are very blue!

Gillie

[Snoop]

I tried baking some and roasting some last year and they were pretty awful, to be honest. Altogether too chewy and dry textured. Not sure how they'd work on a hotpot, maybe better due to the moisture of the stew underneath.

I've just looked up purple potatoes on jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk. They have some that look a bit like the ones I had (check Congo on their site). I also notice they only say good for boiling and mashing but, like gillie says, perhaps a novelty crisp.