Potato trial: second early potatoes

Today is the turn of the second early potatoes, those of you that regularly read my blog will know that my first earlies were a bit of a disaster. You can read about it here…
I didn’t hold much hope for the second early potatoes because of the poor showing of the first early potatoes. I did have the British Queen first early still to dig up as I left these a few more weeks in the hope of a bigger crop. And I also found a second container at the allotment with more Winston in so these may have a better crop also; I forgot I had 2 containers with them in! Bonus!! The second early potatoes are Dr Macintosh and Doon Pearl both old heritage varieties and I was particularly looking forward to trying the Dr Macintosh I just love the name from the first time I saw them on the website JBA I knew I had to grow them.

So first up was the British Queen, I was pleasantly surprised with them, as I only had 5 tubes left after the sub-zero temperatures back in February took half of them away.  In total I had a crop of 1lb 8oz enough for a few feedings for the family and all the tubes were of a good size.

Next up was the second tub of Winston. The first tub back in May was very poor with only a handful of potatoes but the second crop lifted today was much better, infact some of the tubers were very large almost what you would expect of main crop potatoes. Total weight was 2lb 7oz not to shabby at all.
Then onto Doon Pearl, they produced some really nice sized tubers and again I only had 5 tubers left after the February frosts got to them they produced a crop of 1lb 10oz.
Lastly was the Dr Macintosh the crop I held in high hopes “drum roll” they produced 2lb 15oz of potatoes I was very chuffed and they also produced the most consisted in size also.
So after I got them home and cleaned them up, I decided to cook a few of each off to see what ones tasted best.

When cooking freshly dug potatoes if quite important to SLOWLY cook them bring them to the boil then finished them at a low simmer this will stop them from falling apart,

Out of the 4 the best I feel was the Dr Macintosh they were really fluffy inside and not to waxy and had a really earthy taste, I don’t know why these are not a common potato? I would really recommend these to anyone who fancies growing something different.

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