Just a month ago, over the Easter weekend, I planted out this year’s seed potatoes. Eight varieties this year, a couple more than usual. With the uncertainty about food availability and cost as the year progresses due to the knock-on effects of the war in Iran I have planned on planting more staples such as these to see us through the winter. Down by the polytunnel we are giving over some of the space we devote to annual ornamentals to a larger planting of celeriac, swedes and turnips, while I have just sown twice the number of drying beans as usual to ensure the pantry is as well stocked as it can be.

As the new potatoes start sprouting this week we are just coming to the end of the stored potatoes from last year’s harvest. The best keepers for us have been the creamy and nutty Pink Fir Apple, supreme masher and roaster, Kerr’s Pink and good all-rounder, blight resistant Sarpo Mira. We grow these three varieties every year, along with salad potatoes, Charlotte, Nicola and Ratte, which need to be eaten first as they don’t keep as well. Additions this year are Ulster Prince and a row of unnamed potatoes bought from a roadside stand on the Gower peninsula in Wales last November.