Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, it is time to start thinking about steaming bowls of beautiful Christmas New Potatoes, ohhh, all slathered in melting butter - ohhh yeah.
"Yum, Yum, Yum" says Baby Baxter (between the leaves in the vege. patch).
It makes the mouth water just to think about it doesn't it? Whether it’s a crisp and tasty potato salad for a BBQ or golden slices au gratin for a ‘bring a plate’, there’s nothing more versatile than the mighty (yet incredibly humble) Spud. And it's such a good feeling when you know they’re your own.
It’s sooooo easy to grow potatoes and what’s more you can plant them just about anywhere as long as they have all day sun. All you need is a plot or a spot for a container. A huge range of containers can be used, old tyres are favourites with many, recycling bins, rubbish bags, kitchen buckets the list is endless, as long as it will hold soil, retain moisture and has drainage you're in business (the potato growing business).
Potatoes take around 15 weeks to mature, so the best time to start planting your "festive tatties" is the beginning of September. You may be thinking September is still quite far away, but the organised gardener knows there’s always preparation time that needs factoring in, and we want to help.
Here at Bokashi Boost we’re all about using home made EM compost to create rich, healthy spoil: healthy soil = mega crops oozing vitally and goodness. In order to get your soil 'spud ready', we first need to get your food scraps working towards making that fabulous, nutrition laden compost. And just to prove a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a shot of our first crop from last year, so good you could almost eat them raw.
STEP 1: Get your Bokashi Boost Compost System humming. Start filling up your buckets with ALL your food waste and your EM laced Bokashi mix (remember: just a small, sprinkled handful of Bokashi per 2 litres of food). Then, when your Bokashi Bucket is full, leave it somewhere to ferment for approximately 10 days. (The bonus here is when the 10 days are up you can dilute the Boost Juice you’ve gathered in the bottom of your second bucket and feed anything you like in your garden with super-rich liquid EM fertiliser)
We want your full buckets to have completed their fermentation process and to be dug in under the soil by the beginning of August. We guarantee you that when you come to dig your spuds in 4 weeks later, all evidence of your food scraps will be gone and all you will find is beautiful, rich, EM saturated compost. (In a nutshell this is STEP: 3)
STEP 2: Whilst the buried Bokashi is busy, lay your potatoes out on trays to sprout so they are good and ready for planting. Then come September you’re good to go. Meantime your Bokashi Buckets will have been processing the next batches of scraps so you’ll be ready to prepare for "Tattie Plantings" 2 and 3 in October and November. Follow these easy steps and you’ll be enjoying luscious spuds covered in lashings of butter all summer long!
Because we’re so excited about spuds, we’re planning a Christmas Spud Sale next week to help both new converts and existing Bokashi users get underway. Every penny counts when it comes to Christmas spending doesn't it? So look out for our sale and get your Christmas cutlery polished in time to dig into your very own tasty tatties!
Good luck!
Carla - Bokashi Boost Mum & Festive Spud Queen