The blue Danube variety.
GARDENINGI WAS hungry for a taste of Hungary and I hoped my potato-growing efforts would not be blighted as disastrously as they were a couple of years ago.
I turned to good old Thompson and Morgan and got three of the four disease-resistant Hungarian sarpo varieties, which have been phenomenally popular since their launch last summer.
Sadly, I was too late to get the three varieties which don’t go on general release until next year but if my Hungarian experience is successful this time, I hope it will happen in 2011.
Sarpo potatoes seem too good to be true.
I’m trying the distinctive blue Danube (aka Adam blue) early maincrop, which is exclusive to T&M.
Then there’s sarpo mira and axona, both maincrop varieties and red-skinned.
My fourth spud is the tried and tested cara, which is popular in the greengrocers’ but, like all potatoes, tastes much better straight out of the ground.
White, with distinctive pink eyes, it is a waxy-textured maincropper but can be eaten early and small as a salad spud.
Sarpos, on the other hand, grow well in ground not loaded with chemicals and show tolerance to drought, which is great for the lazy waterer.
They are high yielding, despite the low nutrient input due to their deep root systems, good storers, all resist common viruses, even when next to blight, and their unusual horizontal growth smothers competitor weeds.
They also have beautiful clusters of purple, orange-centred flowers.
That’s what the bumph tells me but come summer I will see, and taste, for myself.
It was the Savari family in Hungary that launched a fight against blight, seeing a canny little earner, several generations ago.
A trust, which constantly improves the variety, is now based at the Henfaes Research Centre, Abergwyngrgyn, Llanfairfechan, near Bangor in North Wales.
But its work is as hugely valuable as the name of its base is long. Blight is a curse, especially to organic producers because, once it takes hold there is little that can be done.
Almost overnight, foliage rot turns tubers to slime, invading the plant to its very core.
Blight strain blue 13 is by far the most virulent, since it first appeared in 2005, and sarpo is highly resistent to that, eelworm and a lot of other nasties, too.
The only downside is, and there is always one, I have been unable to find sarpo earlies. Development, so far, has only produced early maincrop, maincrop and second earlies.
Only time will tell on taste, because so much depends on soil and personal preference.
It is said to be very similar in taste, texture and appearance to romano. The flavour has a pleasant buttery edge, a bit like anya, which is a nobbly salad potato, derived from the Victorian favourite pink fir apple.
It is rated as "fairly floury" but does not disintegrate on steaming.
It is said to be good as a salad potato and it doesn’t go damp and clammy if kept until the next day.