One of my big food bug-bears at the moment is why we seem to be so obsessed with sweet potatoes (always imported, usually from north America) when our own potatoes are just as nutritious and have the advantage of being local and almost always in-season.

Take away the copious quantities of fat that we often add through cooking (or post-cooking) of potatoes and you have an exceptionally healthful, naturally fat-free food that is a great source of fibre, potassium, salt free, low in sugar. It is also, generally speaking, an entirely unprocessed food and – let’s be honest – the same simply can’t be said for pasta.

Potatoes can be grown pretty much anywhere and will actually improve poor soil. They produce a high yield from a relatively small space and store well. No wonder they have been a staple diet for Irish families for centuries.

Effectively there are two types of potatoes: earlies and maincrop.

Earlies grow quickly, have no skin worth speaking of, and are usually out of the soil before blight arrives in summer.

Maincrop develop later, produce a higher yield, develop a thick skin and can therefore be stored. They are, unfortunately, more vulnerable to blight, as they are in the ground during the summer months when blight conditions prevail.

Potatoes are grown from “seed potatoes”, which are potatoes saved from the previous year’s crop. It was traditional for Irish GIYers to save their own seed potatoes, but this is generally out of favour now – better to buy certified seed potatoes each year, in case your own potatoes carry over a virus.

They are a brilliantly easy veg to grow – blight aside – and harvesting your own spuds will be like Christmas morning.

Speaking of Christmas morning, I’ve heard of some GIYers who bury a biscuit tin of harvested spuds in the summer and go out and dig it up on Christmas morning. What a cracking idea! CL

For further information, visit www.GIY.ie

Oriental Noodle Salad

This week, I was in a salad mood and grabbed some carrots from storage and oriental greens from the polytunnel to make this delicious recipe. The noodles bulk it out and make it a fine meal in itself. This will serve two people, but you can make it go a lot further simply by increasing the amount of oriental greens. The garlic and chilli-pepper add a great kick to this –so beware!

A colander full of oriental green leaves (mizuna, tatsoi, pak choi, rocket, must)

1 or 2 raw carrots,cut in to fine strips

8-10 small florets of sprouting broccoli, lightly blanched (two to three minutes)

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 chilli-pepper, de-seeded and chopped

1 portion of egg noodles

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling water. Drain them and put aside. Put the greens, broccoli and carrot in a large bowl and mix. In a small bowl, put the sesame oil, soy sauce, chilli pepper, garlic and ginger and stir well. Pour this over the greens and carrot in the large bowl and toss well. Add the noodles. Toss well again and serve.