Sunday, August 31, 2008

Potatoes. Mine. The Bad News.

Well, in the world of potatoes it doesn't get much worse than Blight. Ask the Irish. In my case what the slugs haven't nibbled is slowly, but inevitably, destined to rot away thanks to the fungus Phytophthora infestans. Curses. Damn and blast. Grr.

Blight is a horrid, foul and fetid thing which spreads from tuber to tuber. My bucket of reject spuds had one or two bad 'uns - the stash in the garage on closer examination are dodgy too. There is no point bagging and storing them. Oh woe.

My mashed potato scheme now must work against the clock. Off I go to peel, boil, bash and butter what I can.

9 comments:

rachel said...

Oh no, blight and slugs - how awful! I just have slugs, and that's enough of a challenge to the dream of mountains of fluffy, buttery home-grown mash.

Twiglet said...

I hope our King Edwards are OK or I imagine I will be helping Wipso peel and mash ours this week!! Mental pictures of huge mash mountains in the locality!

Exam Crisis said...

I pulled up our potatoes and we had an absolute load. I wasn't expecting to get any when the plant hadn't flowered. We got about 34, H has taken a picture to send to you of the "organic garden" that we have produced. Mash will be the eventual demise of ours as well. xx

Claire said...

With all this wet weather the slugs have had a field day. The most succesful crop this year has been the various leaves so salad with absolutely everything. The slugs here have enjoyed the courgettes and even been seen munching on the tomatoes at the bottom of the vine. Mash is a good food incorporate some spring onion or red onion chopped even tiny bits of red pepper softened in butter. Yum!

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

Oh no, blight is just terrible. Ours have been ok so far. However the slugs have just wiped out my late sowing of rocket. I squished a massive one under a brick last night, I was so cross. Felt faintly queasy afterwards but it had it coming. Not sure I should confess this in a public forum.

Ragged Roses said...

Sorry to hear about your potatoes, blight and slugs, what bad luck,
Kimx

Jodie Robson said...

Commiserations, we lost all ours last year, and this year's crop is hopeless, though so far unblighted.

Mopsa said...

I know, I know - same for me last year so just didn't bother this - instead I have huge numbers of cucumbers, courgettes and butternut squashes, none of which get blight - hoorah!

Pam said...

Sorry to hear about the spuds. Any way to prevent it? With it being a root fungus you probably have to rotate now?
I gave you an award on my blog, as I like your so much.