Potato Day at Springwood Park, Kelso

Borders Union Showground, Kelso

Potatoes for Sale 

At the time of writing, we have 117 varieties on order, with 40 of these being organic. (We've already had news of some crop failures and tubers being unfit for sale when they came out of storage, not unexpected as 2007 was so wet and such a bad year for Blight, but hopefully there won't be any more casualties to deplete our list further.)

See the .pdf below for a full list of all varieties, which contains the old favourites plus a few that haven't appeared at a BOG Potato Day before.

These include
Madeleine, (a new organic variety related to Estima)
Peachbloom & Shetland Black, (both Heritage varieties from Carrolls)

Harlequin & Smile (colourful novelties from Thomson & Morgan)

We also have Mayan Gold albeit, technically, it isn't a 'potato' as it was bred from Solanum phureja rather than Solanum tuberosum, the normal potato parent.

Lots of other things to buy and see on the day!

BOG also sell onion sets (organic Setton and Jetset, non-organic Red Baron], shallots [organic Longor and Red Sun] and garlic [Printanor and Elephant], as well as gardening books. There will betrade stands selling local organic food, crafts and garden sundries.

Have a Potato Lunch

Tattie Cafe featuring a wide range of dishes made with named varieties of potato [caterer Gill Orde]

Cooking demonstrations [12 noon & 1pm]

by Expo Chef Dave Hall, a 2007 finalist in Masterchef who specialises in cooking with fresh, seasonal local produce.  There will be potato tastings too!

Potato related talks
11.30 John Marshall, who has been involved in potato growing pretty much all his life, is talking about using seaweed to grow potato feasts in the Hebrides and events that led to the potato famine in Ireland.

12.30 Dr Steve Wilcockson, part of Newcastle University's Agricultural and Food research team who compare organic and conventional techniques by using them side by side, will talk about some findings on food quality, safety and health benefits of food grown by the different methods.

1.30 Dr Finlay Dale from The Scottish Crop Research Institute, who will be talking about their 2007 potato trials and the emergence of what seems to be a new strain of blight.

2.30 Alan Romans, renowned potato expert and author, will talk about the increasing popularity of Conservation varieties and an organic control for eelworm.

Volunteers are needed on the day.  Please contact jayneb@bordersorganicgardeners.org.uk if you can spare an hour or so to help out.