In praise of Sarpo Mira potatoes

[quanglewangle]

We have just finished the last of our Sarpo Mira potatoes and they were a great success. We are troubled with blight and no gardeners around here grow maincrop potatoes - warm and wet summers do it. But I thought I might give an allegedly blight resistant variety a try.

They worked a treat: tops grew quickly and smothered weeds, no blight and best of all no need to dig them up till you need them. We just strimmed off the tops to stop them getting too big and dug a few as we needed them (as recommended).

They eat well too.

[ESBkevin]

Thanks quanglewangle, thats good to know. I think I might get some seed for the spring.

[Mark_Riga]

Carolus is another blight resistant variety that I think is better in the kitchen than Sarpo. It is quite slug resistant as well. Alouette is OK as well but the slugs in Cheshire seem quite keen on it too.

[greenishfing]

Do you know if they make good mash or boil into the water?

[quanglewangle]

Do you know if they make good mash or boil into the water?

You have to watch them - but they make ok mash. Having said that we down't eat a lot of mash.

We have a chopping and shredding attachment on our Kenwood and we have frozen lots are party cooked dauphinoise, hash browns, really thin (like 3mm) chips and parmentier potatoes. All get these parboiled and hold together fine.

[muckdiva]

I grew Sarpo Mira a few years ago and was pleasantly surprised with taste and texture. Had a lovely crop and will grow again next season.

[Penellype]

I've grown both Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona and agree that they avoid blight (although blight is not a huge issue here). Both varieties make big potatoes that mash well - Sarpo Axona tends to start to disintegrate if boiled. The only problem I've had with them is hollow heart which is caused by lack of water and only occurred in the last 2 dry summers. The taste is not as good as Desiree, which is my preferred maincrop variety, but one advantage is that they keep extremely well. I was eating barely sprouting Sarpo Axona throughout MAY of this year from last year's crop.

[Can the Man]

Potatoes that tend to disintegrate during boiling are better off steamed.
Less potato soup

[Aberdeenplotter]

Grow well but tasteless however when mashed and some grated cheese mixed in they eat very well

[bikermike]

Don't quite scan to O sola mio (the cornetto ad music if you prefer), which annoys me. They need an extra syllable. Could we rename them Sarporo Mira