Spuds finally on the plate

Delicious new Charlottes

At Johnny's party on Saturday night I was talking to Frank and his wife Kay who are farming in Cork. Frank was complaining that Kay is spud mad, she has to eat spuds everyday. Kay told me when she was growing up on the farm at home they begged their parents to wake them up when they got home with the first potatoes, no matter how late at night so they could share the enjoyment of the first cooked spuds with butter and salt, sometimes at midnight!! My kind of lunatic. I invited her over for a plate of new spuds straight away.

I have been keen since last week to get my hands on some of my first Earlie's, thinking non-stop about having a big plate of them with butter and salt just as Kay remembered.After all the blight warnings I'm a bit paranoid. I have been walking past the potato beds looking for signs of blight which would normally be easy to spot...... except that all the high winds we have had have thrashed the leaves leaving burnt brown tips on leaves and stalks making me even more paranoid, if that's possible!

Saturday I spotted a stalk going yellow and looking miserable in the middle of the second Earlie's. Turned out to be a Charlotte. I pulled up the stems and didn't expect much underneath but to my big surprise I found a lovely cluster of decent sized spuds, long and cream in colour with perfect flesh. Woo hoo! The first spuds of the year! I took them in, cooked them up and devoured them with a lovely home grown salad. God I love this time of the year. Let the eating begin!

Yes! it was as delicious as it looks!