Edible garden: Potatoes

Turkey ham potato cake with pumpkin dressing and cranberry sauce. Photo / Richard Robinson

How to grow them:

The key tip is to remember what you are trying to grow.

Potatoes are tubers, and you want to develop more tubers on the underground stem.

They need potash.

Comfrey leaves have lots and can be dug in before the spuds are planted.

Apply too much nitrogen by way of animal manure or fresh compost and you'll get lush top growth at the expense of the tubers.

Potatoes do well in crumbly clay loam, dug well for drainage.

Then dig a trench at least a spade depth or more and mound the soil alongside, for backfilling later.

The more stem you cover the more potatoes you get.

Rotate with other crops and don't plant with other solanums such as tomatoes.

In the kitchen:

Potato cakes make a lovely quick meal.

Grate raw potatoes, combine with egg, season with herbs and salt and pepper and pan fry until golden.

Serve with a mesclun leaf and avocado salad.