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ONE OF MY big food bug-bears at the moment is why we seem to be so obsessed with sweet potatoes (always imported, usually from north America) when our own potatoes are just as nutritious and have the advantage of being local and almost always in season.
Take away the copious quantities of fat that we often add through cooking (or post cooking) of potatoes and you have an exceptionally healthful, naturally fat-free food that is a great source of fibre, potassium, salt free, low in sugar.
It is also generally speaking an entirely unprocessed food and let’s be honest, the same simply can’t be said for pasta.
Sowing spuds
Weather permitting, this St Patrick’s Day I will be out (as I am every year) sowing my spuds for the year.
Potatoes can be grown pretty much anywhere and will actually improve poor soil. They produce a high yield from a relatively small space and store well. No wonder they have been a staple diet for Irish families for centuries.
Effectively there are two types of potatoes – earlies and maincrop. Earlies grow quickly, have no skin worth speaking of, and are usually out of the soil before blight arrives in summer.
Maincrop develop later, produce a higher yield, develop a thick skin and can therefore be stored – they are, unfortunately, more vulnerable to blight as they are in the ground during the summer months when blight conditions prevail.
Easy to grow
Potatoes are grown from “seed potatoes” which are potatoes saved from the previous year’s crop. It was traditional for Irish GIYers to save their own seed potatoes but this is generally out of favour now – better to buy certified seed potatoes each year, in case your own potatoes carry over a virus.
They are a brilliantly easy veg to grow – blight aside – and harvesting your own spuds will be like Christmas morning. Speaking of Christmas morning, I’ve heard of some GIYers who bury a biscuit tin of harvested spuds in the summer and go out and dig it up on Christmas morning. What a cracking idea.
Things to Do This Week – Sow Spuds
The soil in which you are planting potatoes requires a generous application of well-rotted farmyard manure, compost or seaweed before planting (ideally a couple of weeks before).
Sow first earlies in mid March (St Patrick’s Day traditionally) in single rows, 15cm deep, 25cm apart and 45cm between rows. Maincrop spuds are sown in mid to late April. Increase spacing to 35cm.
It is vitally important to include potatoes in your crop rotation as they are susceptible to disease if grown in the same ground year on year. Check earlies in mid June to see how they are getting on. Earlies will be ready about 14 weeks after sowing. Maincrops take 18 weeks.
I typically leave my earlies in the ground and dig as required. They do fine in the ground until September at which point we move on to maincrop. Maincrop can stay in the ground until the first frosts – lift them then and store in hessian sacks.
Recipe of the Week – Oriental Green, Carrot and Noodle Salad
With the fine weather this week, I was in a salad mood and grabbed some carrots from storage and oriental greens from the polytunnel to make this delicious recipe. The noodles bulk it out and make it a fine meal in itself.
This will serve two people, but you can make it go a lot further simply by increasing the amount of oriental greens. The garlic and chilli-pepper add a great kick to this so beware.
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling water, drain them and put aside.
Put the greens, broccoli and carrot in a large bowl and mix. In a small bowl put the sesame oil, soy sauce, chilli-pepper, garlic and ginger and stir well. Pour this over the greens and carrot in the large bowl and toss well.
Add the noodles. Toss well again and serve.
Michael Kelly is founder of GIY and GROW HQ.
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Any chance of some balanced journalism and report on the siege by Turkey and its head hacking allies in Afrin?
Indiscriminate bombing? Check
Civilians being massacred? Check
Lots of kids being blown to bits? Check
Maybe it’s too real and the status quo is afraid Call it for what it is, 100 years since the Greek and Armenian genocide, the Turkish establishment haven’t lost their Mongol slaying instincts
@Chicinho Hear Hear!!! But balanced journalism doesnt fit the US led Neoliberal western agenda..
@Nigel O’Neill: It’s actually a Neo-con agenda being delivered by neo- lib reporters who are owned by Neo- cons. You couldn’t make it up.
@Chicinho: The lack of media coverage of what’s going on in Afrin is disgraceful. It’s been under bombardment for weeks now, and has had no water for over a week since Turkey shut of supply from a nearby dam and treatment plant. All we hear in MSM is Turkey’s version of events. And it’s not like the US are nowhere to be seen as their allies are slaughtered. They are actually watching from a few Km’s away and not lifting a finger to intervene. Disgusting.
@Chicinho: Not to mention Zionist Israel getting the US to fight a proxy regime change war to install a puppet president. The UN previously recognized Assad’s Syria until Israel and the US decided he should go. Putin is no saint but I’m glad he stuck in there because otherwise they would have establish anew front in Iran and that would not be nice for anyone.
@JimmyMc:
Don’t forget Fake News RTE.
Goal are really taking sides in this complex 6 year civil war….Seeing things from the Sunni Jahadi side…..Many of the 400000 civilians in Ghouta don’t support the Sunni Jahadi and wish they would take up the offer from Syrian army to surrender and safe passage to another rebel held area to fight on…..Saudi Arabia and Qatar have armed and trained many of these rebels in Saudi proxy war against Iran…..Whatever about been democratic moderate rebels at start of conflict as John Kerry and Joe Biden called them….For many years they are Sunni Jahadi similiar to IS…..Very wrong of Goal to support them…
@John003: well said
@Jamie Thornton: ‘Sunni jihadists similar to IS’. and backed by the US of course. why can’t journalists report it like it is? because they are owned by corporate greed who have no concept of people suffering.
The official policy of the west – ‘Regime change’ for Syria has been stymied by Russian military intervention. This policy of Regime change, has involved Britain, the Us and and their allies arming and promoting ‘ moderate rebels’ to destabilize the Syrian Government and destroy the country and it’s people. These moderate rebels are terrorists. The west, for all it’s talk of freedom and Liberty and morality, has descended into a pit of double standards, lies and murder. Everyone who has backed the west’s narrative is also in this pit of blood and shares responsibility – this includes the media here in Ireland and around the world esp. state propaganda outlets like RTE and the BBC.
It is no wonder there is huge anti Russian sentiment at the moment as they have ruined the complete destruction of Syria for western and Israeli geopolitical goals.
@raymond grehan: This is not in interest of Israel ….Obama administration did train and arm the rebels in early days of conflict….It was in Jordan not Israel….This Syrian civil war has been a disaster for Israel …. Iran’s proxy army are now on their border with Syria as well as in Lebonan….Israel are close to the Druse in Syria who support Assad….Jews are not stupid supporting a Sunni Jahadi takeover of Syria with one of the main groups Al Nusra in charge would be disaster for Isreal….One of the few things Sunni and Shia agree on is destruction of Israel….Only group Israel support are the Kurds in Northern Syria….
@raymond grehan: well said
@Raymond well said and to add also that this is in Black n white, its not a conspiracy theory. Go check out the white paper named ‘Project for the new American Century’..it tells you all you need.
Sounds like another Whitehelmet story.
work is going well to cleans the Islamic terrorism when you here this propaganda.
@Jamie Exactly. Have you ever wondered why there are none such articles with inside stories from people in Yemen ?? They have been under constant bombardment by US backed Saudi forces for months and months now and theres a humanitarian crisis underway. I recall a funeral of a family member killed by a dropped bomb and then they blew up the funeral home while all the mourners were there, as one example
@Nigel O’Neill: I know nigel its a sad state of affairs in Yemen at the moment and will be for a long time as long as the UK USA are backing the slaughter.
@Nigel O’Neill:
May and the British have blood on their hands. They are arming the Saudi killers.
That’s why I can’t take their self-righteousness about the Rusian guy seriously.
In the future the world should look back in shame on events in Syria, which were utterly preventable.
@Walt the events are awful but whi exactly should be ashamed for what exactly?
@Nigel O’Neill: the apathy
@Walt Jabsco:
Yes because getting involved in regime change has work out so well in the past.. #Iraq
@Walt Jabsco: don’t know what to believe anymore. The American paid “rebels” fight on, and the Syrian government drops bombs. I’m sure it’s awful, but the dripfed white-helmet type nonsense doesn’t get attention anymore. No Twitter in Yemen it seems.
These people are trying to drag us into their war. If they want to stop the violence, they should call on their jihadi buddies to leave Ghouta, and to set the civilian population there free.
I’m sick of all the chancers that have spring up–Whiite Helmets etc. A few months back I saw video of the White Helmets (they took off the helmets) cutting off the head of a Palestinian kid. I have no sympathy for them now.
Goal are an extension of the US foreign policy nexus…always have been.
have your say