The Egino Emerging Potato Project looks set for a bumper season this year. We’ve had a generous donation of seed potatoes to sow in March over two different garden sites. With a little bit of elbow grease, our volunteers will have a big harvest to donate to local food banks.
That’s been our focus for the garden areas this year. After a few different harvests, and speaking with food bank managers, we’ve hit upon a winning formula of growing potatoes to donate. Everyone loves potatoes. They have a great shelf life and are versatile. Food bank managers say their customers love them.
We’ve spent the autumn and winter clearing extra garden space for potatoes. Ok, our gardens may not be colourful with flowers or filled with a myriad of different crops, but isn’t there a specific kind of beauty in a big garden filled with vegetables grown specifically to donate? A potato flower is just as wonderful as a rose. And potatoes taste better than roses.
To paraphrase Uncle Monty from Withnail and I: “I think the potato infinitely more fascinating than the geranium. The potato has mystery. Flowers are essentially tarts.”
Potatoes are also great for our volunteers, most of whom are themselves struggling to get buy on benefits or fixed incomes. Everyone benefits from this project: our volunteers have a great reason to get together, and focused meaningful activity that leads to a great result for our communities.
Would you like a to make a small contribution to our efforts? We’ve got our main crop seed potatoes sorted out, however, we don’t have any earlies. It would be great to get early potatoes into the food banks. If you can spare a few quid, we’ll gladly sow an area of the garden with earlies to fill the bellies of our local community. Our volunteers will nurture your donation with pleasure.