Piccolo, the potato

A face?

A face?

 

 

It is too easy to think that Matisse and Picasso paintings, among others, as discovered in Munich, are the only thing that matters in the art world. And it is great fun to consider who these paintings had belonged to, and query the claims of ownership made by some. I have written elsewhere about the Jew who stitched diamonds into the seams of his clothes and used them to pay for his escape from the Nazis. He was pleased to tell me that when he arrived in the safe haven of . . . no-one wanted buy his diamonds for the price he was asking, so he was effectively  penniless and unable to start the good life he had dreamt of. He told me about individuals who had paid for the right to escape with paintings and antiques, he also knew of others, Christians, who, during the 1930's pawned paintings, due to the high inflation that raged through Germany at the time.

 

This variety potato did not exist during the war, but would have been welcome in the Warsaw ghetto for example, however deformed they appear. They are the variety Piccolo Star, a second early, that was introduced in 2010, though Alan Wilson writes that it was 2008.They are best used as salad and boiling potatoes.  Their parentage is Ausonia x VE74120,  (they have Wilja in them) and they are resistant to Blackleg.

 

We grew them in good loam, believing the marketing data that they were of high yield and even size.

We have found that the yield is high but the size is anything but even. Perhaps we would have had more evenness in size had we grown them in Holland where they were originally raised. Even Mr Wilson writes that they have a consistent round shape.

 

Second earlie's harvested in November and they look fun!

 

Picasso was an artist and is now a potato, so next year we may try them. They were developed in Holland as an early main-crop in 1992. Perhaps in the future someone will develop a Henri Matisse, or  van Gogh variety to accompany the Rembrandt that we may try next season.