Potato Pete in the 21st century

During the Second World War, the British Isles were subjected to a Nazi naval blockade, the aim of which was to disrupt food imports and starve the British people into submission. Shipping, whatever it was carrying, had to get past the German U-boats before it could safely deliver its cargo. Of course, the Allies were also trying to prevent ships from reaching Germany – this was the Battle of the Atlantic. By the end of the war, more than 2,400 British merchant ships had been sunk, with the loss of over 30,000 men.

With the pressure on shipping, and the need to bring in munitions and other materials for the war effort, the British government encouraged people to eat more homegrown potatoes and less bread, which was made from imported wheat. One of the ways they did so was to invent a cartoon character – Potato Pete – who ended up being very popular!

Potato Pete had his own recipe book, published by the Ministry of Food, which you can view online, and unrationed potatoes made it into all kinds of dishes, from pastry and sandwich fillings to desserts.

These days, carbohydrates get a bad rap* – they’re accused of fuelling both our expanding waistlines and rising rates of type 2 diabetes. Potato consumption is dropping in the UK, and we’re switching from buying actual potatoes to buying processed potato products. But potatoes are still a mainstay in the vegetable patch, and the easiest way for your garden to produce some carbs.

With Brexit looming (or is it? Who knows?) I have included two beds of potatoes in my 2019 garden plan, and I headed out as soon as the seed potatoes arrived in the shops, to make sure I got what I wanted. For the last two years, I have grown Sarpo Blue Danube, which has the most beautiful blue flowers