Pembrokeshire New Potatoes

Pembrokeshire New Potatoes - News & Blog
from the St Davids Peninsula

Latest News on how the potatoes are growing

~ Spring Season ~

Seed Potatoes are now boxed and sprouting
so that they become physiologically aged.

A field of early potatoes

The St Davids Peninsula is one of the major growing areas of 'Pembrokeshire New Potatoes'.

Potatoes can not stand up to frost and so are planted in the early spring as soon as the risk of frost is gone. In order to get really early potatoes, farmers 'box' the seed (potato) over the winter so that it is already sprouting when planted.

Pembrokeshire New Potatoes in the shops
and on the plate from the end of May

The first earlies get dug by fork and picked by hand as their skins are too soft to be handled by machinery. Depending on the weather, you should find the first Pembrokeshire New Potatoes in the shops and on the plate by the end of May. Glass house potatoes will be available earlier.

In the very unlikely case that your prized new potatoes 'boil black', it either means that the wrong variety was used or they were too immature to be harvested - try a different source.

Do you have any old photographs, video or short stories of
'life in the potato fields' on the St Davids Peninsula?

If so, please send them to life@stdavidsinfo.org.uk

Any other comments, queries or questions may also be sent to the above address.

Feedback will be featured here:

- John from Australia (ex Haverfordwest) wrote in asking:

Hi, I'm a Pembrokeshire boy, born and bred, whose been living in Australlia for the past 42 years. There are many things I miss about the old land but none more than the first spuds each year. Washed not peeled and eaten with lashes of butter. Sadly, there's no such thing here in Oz. Strict quarantine laws restrict bringing in seeds or any form of plant life from overseas. Do you know of anyone or anywhere in Australia where Pembrokeshire earlies have been grown?

So can anyone help him?

- Memories of Potato Picking with Maggie by David