Aaaaaargh! Can't get Sarpo potatoes to cook properly!

[orkneykate]

Grew these for the first time this year - they won't cook. I don't think of them as a floury potato. They will mash but are not very good and so lacking in flavour - no better than the supermarket. They were very slow to grow and had a poor yield. I won't be keeping any back for seed potatoes. By contrast this year my Duke of York's were magnificent, producing some really big baking pots - very surprising as I always think of them as being a small potato.

[marchogaeth]

May be you were unlucky.
I am really pleased to have potato that doesn't get blight and yielded really well. They are different to other potatoes (guess is they are higher in cellulose) but we use them for everything you would a normal main crop. Next year I'm going to try Sarpo Axona which are supposed to be better tasting.

I guess if you are not bothered by blight you would choose to grow another variety which has had many more years of selection applied to it than the Sarpo types.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Sarpo Mira is an extremely late spud so be prepared for that when planting. I also think they are a bit lacking in flavour but boiled and mashed they are super with some grated cheese added.

[Bill HH]

Now I dissapointed, I have ordered Sarpo for this coming season due to blight last season. But if they are as bad as people are saying I might as well buy our spuds from the shops.

[Aberdeenplotter]

they are not bad Bill. They are extremely blight resistant and huge croppers, they just aren't brilliant and are a really late spud

[Bill HH]

Oh well i am reassured, better some unbrilliant spuds than buckets of smelly mush.

[Patchninja]

I would microave them whole in their skins for mashing - or as you don't nuke, bake them in the oven. It might help with the flavour not to have what little there is washed out.

[marchogaeth]

Oh well i am reassured, better some unbrilliant spuds than buckets of smelly mush.

My sentiments exactly. We really enjoy them baked but the skins can be very hard so it's worth putting a pan of water in the oven as well. The thing I didn't realise and wished I had know is that they don't die at the end of the season so basically you have to harvest them when you think they are big enough. I had a major slug attack in mine by the time I harvested but I think this was because I kept waiting for them to die. That said 20 plants gave us more potatoes than we really need being big rice and pasta people.

This web site is informative Sarvari Research Trust | Home. Dave Shaw, who runs the trust, recommended I try Sarpo Axona as a tastier (more potato like) cultivar for next year. I have ordered them but unfortunately, only T&M stock them and I really hate dealing with them and have little hope of them actually turning up TBH.

I'll add here that I am really pleased with oca (no blight, no nematodes and not apparently very attractive to slugs). I had 5 plants that I stuck in to a bit of spare ground in what is a bit of a shady spot. They needed no care and attention other than watering; smothered all weeds: had pretty flowers as well as leaves; were really easy to harvest with my hands so doing minimum soil damage and gave me 12 edible pounds from and area of less than a square yard. They taste pretty good, too although they do have to be cooked well all the way through or they taste lemony (which I don't mind but others weren't so sure.)

[Nicos]

We tried these a while ago with similar sludgy/tasteless results and never bought them again
However since then I noticed there are lots of different varieties of sarpo around- so perhaps you need to look into the choice for one better suited to your soil type??

just a thought!