Digging for spuds gives me a bird’s eye view

MY birthday is on Jul 21 and one of the minor ways in which it is celebrated is that I dig the first new potatoes from the garden.

I live in a part of the country that gets night frosts until quite late in the spring so I’ve learned to sprout or ‘chit’ the seed indoors but resist planting it out until well into April.

My favourite variety is Sharpe’s Express. It’s old-fashioned and not particularly productive but the flavour is superb. I was pleasantly surprised this year when I dug the first couple of plants for the birthday dinner. The crop looks like it will be the best for many years in terms of both the size and the number of the tubers.