Delights of the humble spud

Digging your own potatoes and serving up “balls of flour’’ on the kitchen table, an hour later, is a special kind of experience that’s becoming all too rare in Ireland, with the one-time staple food being gradually forsaken in recent years, writes Donal Hickey. 

Growing up in an era in which a dinner wouldn’t be regarded as a dinner without generous helpings of potatoes, I take pride in my early British Queens and can boast a splendid crop this year. Anybody with even a small vegetable patch can have their own potatoes which are easy to grow.

It’s a primal delight to see the first stalks peeping an inch or so above the ground and then shooting up to dominate the garden in a few weeks. Some people grow their potatoes