Fun with potatoes

Check out this great Australian blog from The Old Foodie in Brisbane. 17 August 2006 she wrote a lengthy article on the history of potatoes, and included loads of great recipes/uses for the humble spud. Janet (The Old Foodie) said "it must be my North of England heritage - I've never met a potato yet that I didn't like."

http://companiontotheoldfoodie.blogspot.com/2006/08/fun-with-potatoes.html

Our first article

Haven't had a chance to check on the potato beds since they were planted - here's hoping that all the wind and rain haven't delivered the seed potatoes into the dam below!

While lunching at the Glenlyon General Store yesterday I caught up with local news. - found this in last Wednesday's The Advocate. Thanks for the coverage Ray!

Drummond Primary School planters

Time to celebrate - our spuds have hit the dirt

First of the planters - Yandoit Primary School children - Lotus, Madeleine and Edwin.













Contemplating the 16 varieties of potatoes they're to plant out. We ended up with another two varieties from DPI Toolangi - Purple Congo and Kipfler; Fernleigh Farms also provided Pink Fir.

Ray Frawley, journalist at the Ballarat Courier, explained to the potato planters that the Atlantic potato is widely used for making potato crisps. On the right is Fiona Chambers, owner of Fernleigh Farms, and host of our potato plots. (Keep an eye out for Ray's article in The Courier.)

After the briefing .... it's down to work. Here the children from Yandoit and Bullarto Primary Schools place the potatoes in the pre-drilled furrows.


Drummond Primary School children joined the planters later in the day. By 7pm the potatoes had been fertilised and covered. HUGE thanks to Fiona, Nick and Sandor at Fernleigh Farms for the land and the hard work they put in yesterday. Over the summer holidays the FF crew will continue to look after the growing potatoes. The patches have all been marked out, by potato variety and school, so if you're passing by, please call in and check on growth. We'll be posting news and pics as the spuds germinate.

In the meantime - diary dates for 2008 are
22 February - Daylesford Primary School students design potato-print place mats for the Worlds Longest Lunch
17 March - harvest begins
23 March - Potato BBQ and Dean sign launch (contact 03 5334 5466)- Dean Hall & Mechanics Institute
April - The Big Cook-off - Bullarto, Drummond and Yandoit Primary Schools create potato menus
23 August - Big Spud Ho-Down & BBQ - Launch Dean & District Spud History - Dean Hall & Mechanics Institute (contact 03 5334 5466)

Things are germinating

Well - it's a month since we last posted. We're a little like a duck - not much happening on the surface, and frantic paddling below. We've received 20 seed potatoes of 12 different varieties from DPI Toolangi. These potatoes will be planted out at Fernleigh Farms, in a bed specially created to show them off.

The first planting includes Atlantic, Toolangi Delight, Nicola, Sebago, Desiree, Pontiac, Russet Burbank, Bison, Rumba New Red, Ruby Lou, Willwash and Lustre. We'd like to plant more and different varieties, so if you live in central Victoria, have rare, wonderful, tasty, disease-free seed potatoes that you'd like to share then please send us an email.

November is usually the time our potato farmers plant their seed potatoes. All over our region you can see hectares of land being prepared. The soil always looks stunning at this time of the year - rich red volcanic.

On Wednesday 12 December, children from nearby primary schools will be at Fernleigh Farms to plant out the spuds. If you're passing around 12.30pm then come and join in our first big celebration of THE SPUD.