Potato varieties on sale in 2021

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If you’re growing your own this year, you might want to have a look at some of the 20 varieties of seed potato we’ll have available. There’s something for everyone, from old favourites to some more unusual varieties.

All our potatoes are £2 per dozen, pick and mix (or 20p each). You can choose just what you need – and you’ll be supporting our food growing community at the same time. We’ll also have shallots, onions and some packets of vegetable seeds available this spring. We accept contactless card payments, for anyone who prefers to pay this way.

We usually have our Huddersfield Potato Day and Seed Swap event on a Saturday morning at the end of February or the beginning of March (at Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome Road South, Huddersfield HD4 6JJ). Please bear with us whilst we work out what’s possible this year. If we can’t hold a Covid-safe event, we will offer a click and collect service, have an outdoor stall or we’ll find another way for you to get your seeds safely. For updates please Join our email list

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Our full list of potato varieties:

Potato picker 2021 – full details of all our varieties (PDF)

We have limited quantities of some varieties this time. but we also have our six most popular varieties in larger quantities than usual.

 

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Popular potato picks

Rocket – first early

Rocket is well named, because it grows really quickly. It’s among the first potato varieties to crop and produces large quantities of uniform shaped tubers. It’s also well suited to growing at home in containers or potato bags.

 

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Charlotte – second early

Charlotte is a popular, easy to grow, waxy salad variety. You can grow fresh flavoured potatoes which taste great either hot or cold. Ideal for salads and your crop will store until Christmas. Good disease resistance and high yielding.

 

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Kestrel – second early

Kestrel is one of our ever-popular early potato varieties. It has a unique purple blush, a naturally occurring trait which is passed on from their parent variety, the Cara potato. Kestrel has a delicious, slightly-sweet flavour and is great for baking, roasting and chips. It also has good disease resistance and was recommended by Joe Maiden. 

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Desiree – main crop

Desiree is a very popular choice for food growers. The tasty white and creamy flesh has a lovely, fluffy texture when cooked. Great whether baked, roasted or mashed. It’s very versatile and easy to grow.

 

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Sarpo Mira – main crop (organic)

Sarpo potatoes are grown by the Sarvari Research Trust in North Wales. These potatoes all have excellent resistance to blight, so they are ideal for organic growers. Our participants have had great success with Sarpo Mira in particular. We often sell out of these early, but we have extra available this year.

 

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Pink Fir Apple – late main crop (heritage)

Pink Fir Apple potatoes are always in high demand here – and rightly so. They’re one of our all time favourites, great tasting both hot and cold. You can cook them whole in their skins, so don’t worry about peeling this unusual shaped spud. To make sure that you don’t miss out on this firm favourite, we keep lots of them in stock. Enjoy!

 

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Organised by Growing Newsome

Our special thanks to the
West Yorkshire Organic Group
for supporting our Potato Day.

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Growing Newsome’s homegrown preserves – gift boxes

We have a selection of preserves available now, freshly made this Summer and Autumn from fruit and vegetables grown in the Newsome area. All sales help to support our food growing community.

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Christmas gift boxes – £5 each

Two 8oz jars of our homegrown preserves, presented in a fully recyclable gift box with festive fabric ribbon and paper tag. Choose from a selection of our jams and jellies made from fruit and vegetables grown in Newsome.

Choose any two jars:

• Jam – Blackberry and Apple Jam*, Blackcurrant Jam, Plum Jam,*
  Courgette and Ginger Jam, Plum and Apple Jam, Rhubarb and Apple Jam, Rhubarb and Ginger Jam,
• Jelly – Apple Jelly with Blackberries*, Blackcurrant Jelly, Mixed Currant Jelly*, Redcurrant Jelly.*
• Marmalade and Conserves – Orange marmalade (not homegrown, but homemade).

Sold out
*low stock    

If we’ve run out of something you really wanted, feel free to drop us an email to check whether we’re making any more before Christmas.

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Easy to recycle or reuse

Our gift boxes are fully recyclable. The box, tag, labels and stickers are made of paper and card. Our ribbons are fabric, which can be composted or reused.

You’re welcome to return the jars to us at any Growing Newsome event or Newsome Forum meeting in 2021, or glass can be taken to bottle banks or recycling centres.

Apart from the citrus fruits, all our fresh ingredients are homegrown, so we have limited supplies. We’ll update this page with our current stock. Label designs may vary.

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Order, pay and collect

Please email growingnewsome@gmail.com to make an order. We’ll confirm your order and send you a link that you can use to pay online. Orders can be collected from Newsome village on a number of days during December. We’ll send you the details when your order is ready. If you need to collect your order before a certain date, please let us know. Thank you.

Autumn Pop up Stall, 24th October 2020

If you’d like to get your autumn-planting garlic and onions from us this year, or pick up some locally grown jam and other things to enjoy, you van visit our Pop up Growing Newsome stall: Saturday 24th October from 10am to around 12 noon Outside St John’s Church, off Jackroyd Lane, in Newsome village Look out for our pop up stall on the path through the church grounds.

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How you can visit safely and keep others safe

Please arrive via the Lych gate (the covered gateway arch) at Newsome crossroads, at the corner of Jackroyd Lane and Newsome Road South.

If other people are already at the stall, please follow the distancing guidelines and wait for a safe space. We’re hoping to dodge the rain showers, but you might want to bring a brolley or shelter in the Lych gate if you need to wait a few minutes. 

Please sanitise your hands when you get to the stall (we’re providing some hand sanitiser). We also recommend doing this before you leave.

If you’d like to avoid handling cash, we will be accepting contactless card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and payments from other contactless smartphones and watches (but you can still pay with cash if you’d like).

In case the government guidelines for Kirklees change in the next few days, please be reassured that we have consent from West Yorkshire Police to hold our outdoor stall, and we’re keeping in touch with our ward councillors. 

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Choose your garlic

If you’re coming along to buy some garlic bulbs, you can find information about the varieties that we have available on our web site

Garlic bulbs available in 2020

We’ll also have some onion sets, seeds and plants available.

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How you can help

We know it’s short notice for our stall. We hope you can make it on Saturday – and if you can help to let other people In the local area know it’s happening, we really appreciate it. You might also want to offer to pick something up for others who have been shielding. If you’d like to buy something but can’t get there, please let us know and between us we’ll do our best to help.

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Supported by our councillors

Our new contactless payments facility is funded by the Newsome councillors, from their community response Ward Project Budgets. This is extra funding available from Kirklees Council to help all kinds of organisations who are supporting people in our local places during Covid-19.

We’d like to say thank you to our councillors, and especially to Cllr Andrew Cooper for his continuing encouragement and personal support.

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Thank you

We also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has shared some fruit or vegetables for our autumn preserves, and thank you to everyone who has helped us to organise the stall.

If you have any questions about the stall, you can contact us at: GrowingNewsome@gmail.com

Photo by Steve F, licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Garlic bulbs available in 2020

Our Autumn planting vegetables this year will include five different varieties of garlic. Pick up your garlic from our Pop up Growing Newsome stall on Saturday 24th October from 10am to around 12 noon outside St John’s Church in Newsome village.

Garlic needs a month or more in the ground at a temperature of 10C or less, and Autumn planting gives you the best chance for this. So you can get planting yours soon – all you need to do is decide what sort to grow.

To help you choose, here are some notes…

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Solent Wight Extra Early

• For early crops of tasty garlic
• Hardneck variety originally from China, which has been developed in France
• White skinned with crisp brilliant white flesh
• Large, high quality bulbs
• Plant in autumn or spring
• Excellent keeping qualities

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Caulk Wight

• Purple-striped bulbs which resist splitting
• Hardneck variety from Eastern Europe
• Grows well in the UK climate
• Good flavour and easy to peel
• Perfect for autumn planting
• Harvest as early as June

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Iberian Wight

• Good all-round garlic
• Softneck variety from Cordoba in Spain
• Large, flat bulbs
• White skins, can be flecked with purple
• Plant October to December
• Stores well into winter

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Carcassone Wight

• Especially fragrant, with good flavour
• Hardneck variety from the South of France
• Pink cloves and good skin cover
• Performs well in the UK
• Plant in autumn or spring
• Harvest in July

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Mersley Wight

• Has the best keeping quality
• Softneck variety originally from France
• Classic silverskin garlic
• Larger cloves and very vigorous
• Plant in late winter or spring
• Harvest in late July

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You can pick up your garlic bulbs from our Pop up Growing Newsome stall on Saturday 24th October from 10am to around 12 noon outside St John’s Church in Newsome village. We ask for £2 per bulb to cover our costs. This is ideal if you have a small garden or plot, as you don’t need to buy a whole pack. It’s also great if you fancy planting more than one variety and you just want one bulb of each – or if you want lots, but want to save some pennies (and avoid paying for postage). We’ll have some onions, vegetable seeds and plants too.

If you can’t make it to our Autumn pop up stall, we will offer any remaining stock afterwards. You can Join our email list for updates.

Growing Newsome Plant Drop, June 2020

Although we aren’t able to get together for our usual Big Plant Swap this year, we are still here for each other. And we still want to help people grow their own food. So with a little help from our friends, we have turned our annual plant swap into a Plant Drop.

We’ve decided that if our growers can’t come to us, we’ll bring some plants to your doorstep. We hope you will join in. Please let us know what plants you’d like and we’ll do our best to get them to you.

 

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See our plant list

We have over 90 different varieties of edible plants, including:

Cabbages, Broccoli and Kale

Chard, Sorrel and Mustard

Tomatoes and Peppers

Courgettes, Pumpkins and Squash

Herbs for your windowsill

and lots more…

 

Here’s a list of the plants that we have for you:

Plants available for our Plant Drop

 

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Request a doorstep plant drop

Please let us know if you’d like some plants delivering to your doorstep. Your plants will be brought by one of the other growers from our network who have kindly volunteered to help. We’ll do this in a safe way.

 

Growing Newsome Plant Drop – request some plants

If we get a lot of requests at the same time, we may pause our order form for a while to give us chance to pack the deliveries that we already have. We can deliver anywhere in the Newsome ward and will also aim to deliver to other places in Huddersfield, 

 

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Ways to say thank you for your plants

Rebecca has shared this photo of veg happily growing in her garden during lockdown, including some Growing Newsome potatoes

In the usual spirit of our Plant Swap, you are welcome to share something with us in exchange for your plants, if you can. We’d love to receive a note, card or email from you saying why growing your own food matters to you, especially right now. You might like to send us a photo of something that you’re growing via email: GrowingNewsome@gmail.com or via twitter: @GrowingNewsome

Making a donation

If you’d like to make a financial donation for your plants, we’ll let you know how to do this safely. Or come along to a future Growing Newsome event and put something in one of our donation boxes.

 

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Supported by our volunteers

We want to say a huge thank you to all the members of the Growing Newsome network who have kindly volunteered to help with the deliveries and preparations.

Many of our elves are currently unable to do the things they love to do to help others, because they are self-isolating or shielding. It’s hard for all of us. So our Plant Drop would not be possible without the kind hearts of our community. Thank you.

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Supported by our councillors

Our Plant Drop is funded by the Newsome councillors, from their community response Ward Project Budgets. This is extra funding available from Kirklees Council to help all kinds of organisations who are supporting people in our local places during Covid-19.

We’d like to say thank you to our councillors, and especially to Cllr Andrew Cooper for his encouragement and personal support.

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Potato varieties on sale in 2020

Apache potatoes

If you’re going to grow some spuds this year, you might want to have a look at some of the 30+ varieties of seed potato we’ll have available at our Seed Swap and Potato Day. There’s something for everyone, from old favourites to some more unusual varieties.

All our potatoes are £2 per dozen, pick and mix (or 20p each). You can choose just what you need – and you’ll be supporting our community activities at the same time.

Our full list of varieties:

Potato picker 2020 – full details of all our varieties (PDF)

or you might like to try one of our top five…

 

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Our top five potato picks

Kestrel is one of our ever-popular early potato varieties. It has a unique purple blush, a naturally occurring trait which is passed on from their parent variety, the Cara potato. Kestrel has a delicious, slightly-sweet flavour and is great for baking, roasting and chips. It also has good disease resistance and was recommended by Joe Maiden. If reliable earlies are your thing, you might also like to try Rocket (one of the earliest croppers) or Charlotte (an easy-to-grow and well-know favourite).

 

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International Kidney is a classic heritage salad potato. Sold early in the season by Jersey growers under the trademark ‘Jersey Royals’. Harvest yours early as waxy perfect salad potatoes, or leave them in the ground a few more weeks to bulk up as a main crops. If heritage salad potatoes are your thing, you might also like Belle de Fontenay, which was new to us last year. It’s a classic French salad potato, first introduced in 1885. It has a fine flavour – great for salads (hot or cold).

 

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Pink Gypsy is fairly new to us and has already proved very popular. It’s one of 14 organic varieties that we have this year. Pink Gypsy is quite distinctive looking, with deep pink and cream skins. The tasty white and creamy flesh has a lovely, fluffy texture when cooked. Great whether baked, roasted or mashed. If striking-coloured spuds are your thing, you might also like to try Apache (which has similar markings), Salad Blue, Red Emmalie or Highland Burgundy Red.

 

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Pink Fir Apple potatoes are always in high demand here – and rightly so. They’re one of our all time favourites, great tasting both hot and cold. You can cook them whole in their skins, so don’t worry about peeling this unusual shaped spud. To make sure that you don’t miss out on this firm favourite, we keep lots of them in stock. Enjoy!

 

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Sarpo potatoes are grown by the Sarvari Research Trust in North Wales. These potatoes all have excellent resistance to blight, so they are ideal for organic growers. Our participants have had great success with the maincrop Sarpo Mira in particular. This year we also have Sarpo Kifli (a maincrop) and Sarpo Una (grown as a second early or early main). Kifli can be grown over a long period and stores well – enjoy them when freshly harvested and cooked in their skins.

 

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Growing Newsome Seed Swap & Huddersfield Potato Day – Saturday 29th February 2020

Get your growing year off to a great start with our bumper early Spring event…

Seed Swap and Potato Day

Saturday 29th February 2020
10am to 1pm

Newsome Scout Hall
Newsome Road South
Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

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Huddersfield Potato Day

Choose from 30 different types of seed potato, including popular easy-to-grow varieties and some more unusual types. All seed potatoes are £2 per dozen (pick and mix) or 20p each. Our 2020 varieties are:

1st Earlies:
Casablanca (organic), Colleen (organic), Lady Christl, Maris Bard (organic), Red Duke of York, Rocket, Sharpe’s Express, Winston

2nd Earlies:
Apache, British Queen, Charlotte (organic), Jazzy, Kestrel, Maris Peer (organic), Sarpo Una (organic).

Mains:
Ambo (organic), Belle de Fontenay, Cara (organic), Carolous (organic), Desiree, Highland Burgundy Red, International Kidney, Mary’s Rose (organic), Orla (organic), Pink Gypsy (organic), Pink Fir Apple, Red Emmalie, Salad Blue (organic), Sarpo Kifli, Sarpo Mira (organic), Vales Sovereign.

More info about the varieties:

Potato picker 2020 (PDF)

Our top 5 potato picks

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Seed Swap

Seeds galore – We’ll also have vegetable and salad seeds, sprouted garlic, onion sets and shallots on offer. You can either swap, or pick up some seeds in exchange for a small donation. Try our seed starter packs – ideal for growing in small spaces.

Activities –  Enjoy seed planting and crafts for kids with our Growing Newsome volunteers.

Learn about Beekeeping – Find out about beekeeping, get advice and see the demonstration hive from the Huddersfield and District Bee Keeping Association. 

Enjoy the outdoors – Take part in the herb smell challenge and “guess the seed” activities with Growing Works and find out about their upcoming courses and events which are all about nurturing healthy lives outdoors.

Local food on sale – Jam and other preserves made from fruit and veg grown in Newsome, plus locally produced honey from the Huddersfield Bee Keepers.

Books – Book stall with all sorts of books.

Refreshments – Tea, coffee and home made cakes available all day.

Help with growing – Please ask for advice.

Plant pot & jam jar amnesty – Bring along your spare small plant pots or small jam jars (we can only use 1Ib jam jars or smaller, which will fit a standard 63mm screw top lid).

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Join us for lunch

served 12 noon to 1pm 

Enjoy a warming cooked lunch, featuring some local ingredients.

Free admission. All welcome. And please tell all your friends!

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Organised by Growing Newsome

Our special thanks to the
West Yorkshire Organic Group
for supporting our Potato Day.

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Want to help?

We’re looking for volunteers to help out with our events and activities. Contact us at growingnewsome@gmail.com to find out more, or ask on the day.

Print our poster and help to promote the event:
Huddersfield Potato Day 2020 (PDF)

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Potato Day 2020 – order your seed potatoes in advance

Our annual Huddersfield Potato Day is always popular. If you want to make sure you get the best pick of the potatoes, you can order from us in advance.

The idea of our Potato Day is that you can choose from around 30 different varieties of seed potato. This means you can just get what you need, instead of having to buy a whole bag of the same variety. It’s ideal for anyone with a small garden or containers, or if you just want to try something new.

We do our best to get your favourites, based on what was popular at our last Potato Day, and what our participants have asked us to buy.

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Our 2020 varieties are:

1st Earlies: Casablanca (organic), Colleen (organic), Lady Christl, Maris Bard (organic), Red Duke of York, Rocket, Sharpe’s Express, Winston

2nd Earlies: Apache, British Queen, Charlotte (organic), Jazzy, Kestrel, Maris Peer (organic), Sarpo Una (organic).

Mains: Ambo (organic), Belle de Fontenay, Cara (organic), Carolous (organic), Desiree, Highland Burgundy Red, International Kidney, Mary’s Rose (organic), Orla (organic), Pink Gypsy (organic), Pink Fir Apple, Red Emmalie, Salad Blue (organic), Sarpo Kifli, Sarpo Mira (organic), Vales Sovereign.

You can find descriptions of many of these varieties in last year’s potato guide:
Potato picker 2019

Our full 2020 guide will be available nearer the time.

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Order your seed potatoes

Sorry – advanced orders closed on 2nd February 2020.

All the seed potatoes will cost no more than 20p each or £2 per dozen. You will be able to collect your order from our Potato Day on Saturday 29th February 2020.

Please note: Our maximum advance order for most varieties is 60 tubers (more for Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple). If you’re placing a big order, we’ll get in touch to discuss what’s possible.

Autumn Gathering – Saturday 12th October 2019

Love local food? There’s lots for you to enjoy at this event…

Autumn Gathering

Saturday 12th October 2019
10am to 1pm

Newsome Scout Hall
Newsome Road South
Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

Lots of jam and preserves made from fruit, vegetables and herbs grown in Newsome.

Beekeeping advice and demonstration hive from the Huddersfield and District Bee Keeping Association.

Autumn-planting vegetables, fruit and salads.

 

Kids crafts – get creative in our craft corner and make a collage or creature.

Book stall with all sorts of books.

Recipes and tasters – find out what you can make.

Got a glut? Please bring along spare fruit or vegetables to share.

Tea, coffee and home made cakes available.

Information about local volunteering, events and activities.

Jam jar amnesty – clean, small jam jars (1 Ib or less) that fit a 63mm lid are welcome.

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Autumn Planting:

Autumn planting vegetables for you to take home – including a selection of garlic bulbs, onions, seeds, overwintering leaf crops, strawberry plants and anything else we can rustle up. We’ll also be taking advance orders for our 2020 seed potatoes.

Garlic bulbs available at our Autumn Gathering 2019

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Souper Soups:
served from 12 noon to 1pm

Enjoy a choice of seasonal soups for lunch at the Scout Hall, made with local vegetables and served with a selection of fresh breads, followed by a hot Autumn pudding made with local fruit.

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How you can help:

• Display a poster:
  Autumn Gathering poster (PDF)
• Bring something for the cake stall.
• Bring along the rest of the family or bring a friend.
• Please get in touch if you’d like to come along and help out on the day.

Organised by Growing Newsome

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Garlic bulbs available at our Autumn Gathering 2019

Our Autumn planting vegetables this year will include six different varieties of garlic. Pick up yours at our Autumn Gathering event on 12th October 2019.

Garlic needs a month or more in the ground at a temperature of 10C or less, and Autumn planting gives you the best chance for this. So you can get planting yours soon – all you need to do is decide what sort to grow.

To help you choose, here are some notes…

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Germidour (organic)

• Fast growing French variety with high yields.
• Plant in October or November for harvest in June.
• A rich purple head with ivory clove skins – very attractive.
• A non-flowering variety which can be strung or plaited.
• Winner of RHS Award of Gardening Merit 2004.
• Lift as soon as mature. Should keep until December following harvesting.

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Mikulov Wight

• Violet coloured bulbs with very large cloves.
• From the beautiful, southern Moravian town of Mikulov.
• The strong flavour is described by the locals as ‘noble’.
• This garlic keeps well, autumn planting is preferred.
• The plant has large leaves that stand straight and strong.
• A hardneck variety that naturally produces edible flower stalks called a scapes.
  

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Printanor (organic)

• Large white bulbs filled with plump tasty cloves.
• Suitable for planting in the autumn.
• Can also be planted from January to March for July harvest.
• 12-18 pinkish cloves per bulb.
• Keeps well. Virus free.

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Red Duke

• A beautiful hardneck variety with red cloves and white skins.
• Has good strength of flavour and scent.
• Can be planted 15-18cm apart from October through to January.
• Produces bulbs typically over 60mm at harvest.
• From Moravia, Czech Republic.
• A durable garlic in the UK climate.

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Solent Wight Extra Early

• For early crops of garlic.
• Large, high quality bulbs. 
• Versatile for autumn or spring planting.
• White skinned with crisp brilliant white flesh.
• Developed in France.
• Excellent keeping qualities. 

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Thermidrome (organic)

• A traditional variety producing large heads and cloves.
• Very hardy so ideal even in harsh conditions.
• White head with a hint of pink, and white clove skins.
• Plant in October or November for harvest in July.
• A non-flowering variety which can be strung or plaited.
• Should keep until the December following harvesting.

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You can pick up your garlic bulbs at our Autumn Gathering event on 12th October 2019, 10am to 1pm at Newsome Scout Hall. We ask for £2 per bulb to cover our costs. This is ideal if you have a small garden or plot, as you don’t need to buy a whole pack. It’s also great if you fancy planting more than one variety and you just want one bulb of each – or if you want lots, but want to save some pennies (and avoid paying for postage).

Look out for onions, shallots, vegetable seeds and some plants too – all suitable for Autumn growing.

If you can’t make it to our Autumn event, we will offer any remaining stock afterwards. You can Join our email list for updates.