White Potatoes, again.

I don’t feel the quality as such is poorer and I just use Tesco’s all rounders but I don’t find they last as long and wonder where they have been stored.

Maris Pipers are my go to potato. I've noticed Sainsbury's bags, include so many incy wincy ones of late, only suitable for mash. I've started looking elsewhere, Aldis are a bit more expensive but at least there were several in their bags that would be a reasonable size for a jacket potato or two.

I'm so in agreement with you KKOB.
Bought Maris Pipers in Sainsbury's on Thursday, awful. Don't eat many so they will have to go on compost heap. I find Tesco's much better for fruit and vegetables. Sainsbury's blueberries are always overripe too

The changeable weather last year (very wet followed by drought) caused a lot of problems for the potato growers, in Scotland at least. Harvests were very poor and standards weren’t great due to disease getting into the crops. It could also be that the produce isn’t being stored properly by sellers.

Most supermarkets sell loose potatoes so you can be more particular about which you choose from those.

It's the tail end - or past it - of potatoes in the UK at the moment. Spuds grown here are naturally not going to be at their best. Storing and selling them in plastic bags doesn't help.

We usually buy our potatoes from one of the farms, they keep much better and are cheaper to buy. 25kg bags and keep them in the paper sacks, after spreading out in fresh air to make sure they are dry, then into smaller hessian bags for indoors. Store in the shed for months, the ones we are using at the moment were bought in October.

But like you say the odd times I have to buy from the supermarket they never keep for long and sometimes are not so good when you peel them - even when they look alright. I do always remove them from the plastic bags, as with all veg.

As suedonim says, if you buy potatoes loose you can examine them individually before paying out.

I just cut out the dark bits and sprouts and eat whats left. there is no need to throw potatoes away.

MOnica 👍

I find both Asda and Aldi veg is ok I don’t think supermarket veg is anything like as good as proper greengrocers veg however in our town we have only one greengrocer and they are very expensive so I rarely buy from there

Baggs

It's the tail end - or past it - of potatoes in the UK at the moment. Spuds grown here are naturally not going to be at their best. Storing and selling them in plastic bags doesn't help.

I completely agree and actually believe no food should be stored in plastic bags! Paper bags all round please

My son, in his tiny garden, has started to grow his own veg, he says lettuces and potatoes are particularly very easy to grow and taste delicious.

UK potatoes go on until April and beyond but there are a lot of EU imported being sold and of course imported fries and other processed spuds.

Black marks are caused by bruising during harvesting dry weather at harvest time is the likely cause. Although a dry summer resulted in poor yield, crops in Europe were good so prices very low. Ex farm for unwashed white potatoes is only around £60 per ton, that’s just 6p a Kilo, far below the cost of production

Anyone else plant the ‘sprouters ’ and then harvest them the following year ? I’ve had some very nice potatoes from doing this. Red ones and white ones.

Our local market used to sell loose, unwashed potatoes. They lasted for ages.

I'm lucky enough to be able to buy direct from a producer and they have been fine. I store them in a brown paper sack in my kitchen

I threw away a few sprouting and withered spuds onto my compost heap some years ago. Every year since I have had a lovely crop of potatoes without any effort. One year we decided to dig them all out of the compost heap. I thought we had got them all, but obviously we hadn't as we continue to get a decent little crop.

I remember my father buying a sack of potatoes and storing them in the shed, they would last for ages, you couldn’t do that now.

I’m another one who got sick and tired of the rubbish potatoes the supermarkets were expecting us to buy! I googled ‘farm fresh potatoes near me’ (or something similar!) and now get mine delivered in 25kg brown sacks that I keep in a dark corner of the garage. The quality and shelf life is amazing and they cost £9.99 - £11.99 including delivery! They’re also a good size for baking and the website suggests the best seasonal varieties!

I bought some Titan potatoes from Lidl as part of their 5p offer before Christmas. Best potatoes I’ve had for ages - used them for jacket potatoes yesterday. I too usually buy MP but agree that the quality is not what it was.

Menopauselbitch

I remember my father buying a sack of potatoes and storing them in the shed, they would last for ages, you couldn’t do that now.

Why not? Plenty of local produce markets sell a 25 kilo paper sack of potatoes. You just need a cool place to store them.

bustonpotatoes.co.uk/product/25kg-sack-farm-fresh-potatoes/

My home grown on the allotment potatoes last us from June to December. I store them in cardboard boxes with newspaper between each layer.

I think we need to take the amount of rain all last summer into account. Even potatoes can get too much rain, while growing!

In my childhood, all Scottish greengrocers offered both Egyptian, Cypriot and Israeli potatoes at different times of the year, as well as Ayrshires and King Edwards.

So, importing potatoes from drier climates is nothing new.

Remember that vegetables are quite dependent on the right growing conditions. The very hot dry summers we're getting now might be stressing the potatoes.

Interesting, I had a very poor crop of potatoes last year in my garden. I did read an article saying potato crops ( due to the weather/ blight), would be very poor that year and for those reasons would be dearer. I'm going to plant some this year and see how they do. I think veg and fruit on the whole in supermarkets now are awful. I blanched and froze a lot over Christmas as if I hadn't, they'd end up being thrown out.