Potatoes

It’s easy to imagine that inhabitants of the British Isles have been eating potatoes since forever. Especially considering the Irish famines, you might easily believe all our forebears were fully reliant on spuds. In actual fact however, potatoes come all the way from South America and weren’t introduced to Europe until the second half of the 16th century. Now five hundred years of mash sounds like a long time, but it’s not really, seeing as humans have inhabited this (often rainy) lump of rock for at least twelve thousand! How on earth anyone managed before their introduction is a good question, but thankfully not one you’ll have to face if you sign up for a box.

We all know floury potatoes make the best roasties and a waxy variety will be better for boiling, but to keep every cook happy and allow flexibility we choose crowd-pleasing ‘all-rounders’ like Orla and the red-skinned Alouette which work excellently wherever this iconic member of the nightshade family is called for. 

We doubt you’ll need ideas about how to use them, but if you get sick of chips or dauphinoise there’s always potato printing or home-brewed vodka…