Places Features

Whitchurch's Potato Days weekend is now claimed to be the biggest in the world. 

Queuing for the check-outs

It is, in fact, the biggest event of its kind in Britain and as nowhere else in the world holds such gatherings, Hampshire's event is assured of the global number one spot.

Rather unsurprisingly, it's only in Britain you will find hundreds of people queuing on a Saturday morning in January to get into a drafty school hall to rummage through rows and rows of crates of very similar-looking seed potatoes.

But these are economic hard times and with increasing environmental awareness  - consumer research from Mintel reveals that 16% of the population are looking towards self-sufficiency - so maybe it's not surprising that people have come from around Hampshire and beyond to get advice and find the widest selection of potatoes in the country.

Phil Cooper has organised the event for the past 11 years, and he has seen a huge growth in its popularity:

Choosing potato varieties

"We're very glad were seeing so many new faces here.  We're certainly seeing a resurgence in growing which has been happening for some time now.  Whole families are getting allotments or digging up the back garden.  The credit crunch may have something to do with it, but it's a trend that's developed over the last few years."

This isn't just experienced gardeners digging through the crates, they are joined by everyone from first-time allotment holders, to young families with a back garden patch and to those who just have a bucket on the patio.

Motivations and potato growing skill differed around the hall: "...growing organic food" was the aim of one couple, "The choice of variety is just mind-blowing!" says another.   "It's the beginning of spring, knowing you are getting your potatoes, planting them, it's very exciting" enthuses another.

But with 120 varieties to choose from, how on earth do you decide which tubers to go for?

Phil insists it's very difficult to identify the perfect spud for Hampshire growers:

120 varieties on offer

"One of the problems with recommending varieties is that everyone has a different taste and two plots of land next door to each other can turn out different crops.  We do have varieties which we know are popular but 'you pays your money and takes your choice'!"

As for the best ways to grow potatoes - you'll find as many different tips as you'll find potato experts in the hall - debates rage into what is best for beating blight, resisting scab and fending off slugs. 

One will scoff at one suggestion while another will just credit /blame the weather for a particularly good or bad crop.

Among the exibitors was Welsh potato-growing guru David 'Taffy Tattie' Chappell and it's hard to question his potato knowledge. With the help of "manure, manure and more manure" he has grown 400 different varieties of spud:

"Potatoes are so diverse in terms of tastes, shapes, colours, sizes ... where would we be without the packets of crisps and fish and chips? - it would be a very dull country indeed!"

Chat to the other growers and you'll even get advice on the best time to plant your potatoes - 11.30am on Good Friday (it may seem a tad exact  but it's based on the logic of Easter being determined by the cycle of the moon and the soil is at its warmest by late morning).

And as they queue for the checkouts clutching sacks, bags and just individual spuds, the growers are all dreaming of one thing - a bumper crop this year.