An open and frank confession from this member...

[Herbsandveg]

Dear fellow Forum members

I realise that what I'm about to say may well shock a lot of people, and so if you're of a slightly timid nature you may well like to click away from this posting now and continue on your way to other posts. I'll have a sip of tea, and I'll get back to all the rest of you in two or three minutes...

(Five minutes later: I went to get a couple of biscuits, and meandered back into the lounge in no great haste to carry on with this posting).

Now, I've thought long and hard about whether can risk revealing the following bombshell to you all, but I feel it's only right that I do, and I just hope that there might be a few of my fellow members who might find a little bit of understanding for me somewhere in your hearts, and reflect on the fact that there's really no accounting for personal preferences, and that everyone has a right within the confines of the law to discover their own way in the world in a spirit of freedom and open tolerance.

The fact is, I just happened to find myself in a large Tesco supermarket yesterday and, having suggested to my girlfriend that we include a couple of baked potatoes in our evening meal, I picked up a pack of four that were clearly marked for that specific purpose (ie baking), and popped them in our trolley for our our tea.

Now, deep breath, and here's the big confession: The variety of the potato was Vales Sovereign, and having found them to be absolutely delicious, with a lovely inner texture and a gloriously tasty skin, I looked them up online, and found that they are as unique and as hip and cool as the cheesiest bubblegum pop record, and have a bit of reputation as a standard supermarket potato with no real 'gardening pedigree' at all. Well, I am very, very sorry, but I really like them a lot (and here's where I no doubt lose my very last few sympathisers), I am seriously thinking of growing them in my garden this Summer.

Is there anyone out the who is prepared to still be my friend now that. I've said this? I felt that. I had to be honest, and that I owed it to you all to try to be as open and transparent as possible, and to bare my gardening soul in such a way.

You will appreciate that this has been a very difficult confession to make, and I know you'll understand when I say that I'm finding it hard to discuss this any further, so I'll simply leave it there, and allow you all to make your own conclusions.

Kind regard, as ever
Graham

[veggiechicken]

My conclusion, H&V - you're bonkers

[Bren In Pots]

I'll be your friend because they do look pretty potatoes with their red/pink markings.

[Bigmallly]

As long as you like them, who gives a damn what others think.

[Potstubsdustbins]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Like the man said, if you like them go for it.

[Penellype]

Taste is totally subjective - I think someone has proved that some people have genes which enable them to taste broccoli and some don't, which probably explains why some people love it and others hate it. If you like something, grow it. If you don't, don't waste the space. That's why there are some glaring omissions in my list of vegetables I'm growing this year. I detest celery and can't eat hot chillies, so there is no earthly point in trying to grow them.

[Greenleaves]

We won't tell anyone if you don't......

[Thelma Sanders]

To avoid possible disappointment - please bear in mind that they may not taste the same when grown in your soil

[Glutton4...]

Nutter!

Personally, I'm not a big spud-eater. However, whatever variety you choose to grow yourself, will taste sooooooooooooo much better than ANY spud you can EVER buy ANYWHERE, you will be a convert. The last time I grew my own spuds, I was looking for excuses to have the ruddy things with every meal.

Haven't grown any since, but the addiction is still there!

[muddled]

Glad you got that off your chest.

....and good luck with your spuds

[Aberdeenplotter]

Try as I might I couldn't bring myself to like your o/p because this is quite preposterous. Almost as ludicrous as me buying beautiful shallots in Costco and then keeping them for seed
《shamed look》.

It's not the keeping though that prompts me to not like your post, it's the admitting you've done it

[starloc]

I was thinking about planting the same ones this morning

I bought some from asda they looked the bast they had, my own grown potatoes are all in Bulgaria and customs dont like potatoes in hand luggage!

I was thinking to myself they seem to taste and cook ok, and are big so I dont have to find so many in the soil....thought I would plant some this year, I went back to the shop this afternoon and got a few bags of reduced ones to plant

Nothing wrong with them!

I even planted some Saxon this year...i think its the worst potato ever from supermarkets......even Saxon tasted fine grown in the garden

[Bill HH]

I am sure you feel better having "Come out" and it has prompted me to do the same. There are some tomatoes in sxxxsburys, deep red and about 1 1/2 inches across (Medium sized) The taste is superior to any i have ever grown myself and i always choose seeds noted for flavour. Supermarket toms are renown for being flavourless and some are. But some are not. If you liked those spuds then why bother growing them, just keep on buying them. It certainly wont save you money growing your own and the flavour may not be as good anyway. I am a bit the same with lettuce, I love iceberg but I get a lot spoilt by slugs and under ground aphids, the shop bought ones are almost always clean. Yes i know it's because they spray them, but its the difference between a great salad and one where I am inspecting each leaf for slugs and things. My choice.

We are all different, for instance I prefer evaporated milk to fresh cream, I love processed cheese and spam mashed in malt vinegar.

[Kristen]

Early on, elsewhere, I was hypothesizing about taking armpit-cuttings from a Tomato plant in a garden centre - purely so that the garden centre could then sell a properly trained cordon plant of course ...

... buy BUYING potatoes to then PLANT? Whatever next ...

The only real issue, the usual old chestnut, is that if they are diseased then you run the risk of that disease spreading to all your allotment neighbours ... then you'd find out who your friends are!

We have loved the baking spuds we got from the Supermarket this year - forgotten the variety - but growing them would be popular with my family

But as TS says, it does depend on your soil. Jersey Royals are readily available to plant (sold as International Kidney) but most people don't rate them, and without all the seaweed that the farmers in Jersey have used over the years, and perhaps the early sunshine too, if you grow you own they ain't going to taste like Jersey Royals

[arpoet]

I Like Marfona and Wilja, both commercial varieties. Marfona are good for steaming, make nice chips and roasts ok for baking.
I dont have enough space to be self sufficient, so buy 25k sacks for £6 from a local garden centre who buy from a farm not too far away. I save the small ones from the sacks as seed tatties.
As i only grow in buckets i can start them off when chitted in the greenhouses and move them outside when conditions are right. This produces method produces enough new potatoes for my lot about 3 months at minimal cost.