News/Blog

Angus Wilson Reflects

Welcome to our new website and my first ever blog!! – who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks (well maybe you will, when you read this!!)

If you scroll to the bottom of any page in the site, you will see the following –
The farming life is a school of patience;
You can’t speed up the crops, nor make the rain fall, but the wait is worth what comes in the taste.
This reminds me of when my passion for all things potato started over 30 years ago. On my dad’s farm we did not grow spuds (just grass for the cows) I was always aware of the conversation around whether the spuds were good or not. Usually in my family, good meant dry floury potatoes as opposed to the wet ones – these spuds were described as bars of soap!!

SPUDS TO SELL & SPUDS TO EAT
There was a well-known suspicion that potato growers of that time had their “spuds to sell” and their “spuds to eat”.  Basically the spuds to sell were all about yield and got lots of fertilizer to get plenty of tonnes per acre and hence a healthy profit. The spuds to eat got less or no fertilizer and were slow grown and hence tasted much better.
It became my mission to grow and offer these “slow grown” potatoes to all and not just for the table of the local potato grower.

TIME AND TASTE
There is a lot in our world that can be just too fast – our communications, our cars, our lifestyles, our conversations. Fast often comes at a cost. Something often gets lost in the impatient pace of today’s world.
As a farmer you really got to be patient if you want to grow good food. For spuds we need to give them time in the soil to develop and mature, to take in all the nutrients that the soil, the sun and the rain have to offer. That time – 3 seasons in fact, spring, summer and autumn combine to deliver the nutritious treasure we love – especially of course here in Ireland!So, if you have time to browse our website that’s great and hopefully you will find it informative. More importantly I hope you take time to savour the many good things in life and that one of those many good things might just be the taste of our spuds!!