potato | Baldock Allotment Association

February 1, 2024

Potato Weekend 2024

This year we are once again running a pre-ordering service for members so they can place orders online for seed potatoes. Orders are placed on a ‘click and collect’ basis and are dealt with in the order they are received.

Once you have made your order, a committee member will reply within 3 days with the amount you owe. Payment is made on collection from the members’ shop or BACS before collection. Please specify the date you wish to collect your order in the order form below and it will be picked and bagged ready for you on that date.

All stock is subject to availability and stock levels are updated on a weekly basis.

Note: BALGA reserves the right to put back into stock any items not collected within 7 days of the specified collection date.

If you wish to order more than one variety in each category, please use the ‘Additional Potato Order’ sections on the form.

Any additional requirements or comments, please add these to the ‘Additional Information box.

Once you have chosen your varieties, don’t forget to select a collection date before clicking ‘Submit’. A copy of your order will be emailed to you. Please print off a copy and bring it with you when you come to collect your order.

Prices are as follows:
Seed potatoes – £1.30 per kilo
Onion sets – £0.70 per 200g
Shallots – £0.70 per 200g

Click here to create your order.

February 1, 2024

Compost Sunday

This to let you know that the BALGA shop will be open this Sunday 4 February for compost sales. There will be a special offer this Sunday on Bloom & Grow peat free compost (the price will reduce as you order more bags)

1 bag £5
2 bags £9
3 bags £12
4 bags £15

Baldock honey will also be on sale.

The shop will then be shut until Potato weekend 24/25 February.

March 8, 2019February 22, 2020

Potatoes, Onions and Shallots Availability 2019

After a successful few weeks of trading, we have sold out of some varieties and we have limited stock with some of our first early potatoes. It’s not too late to buy your potatoes, onions or shallots. Order your potatoes as soon as you can to avoid disappointment, as some varieties are nearly sold out.

We have sold out of Golden Gourmet shallots, but we still have plenty of Red Sun shallots. Why don’t you try Red Sun shallots instead because they have a tasty distinctive flavour with red skin and will store for months.

We have sold out of Desiree and Setanta is a good alternative to Desiree because it’s blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and they’re ideal for roasting and mashing.

It’s not too late if you have not bought your seed potatoes. The shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm or click here to take advantage of our pre-order form. Click here to see a full list of available potatoes and more information about each variety.

February 23, 2019February 22, 2020

Potato Weekend 2019

Potato Weekend has proved very successful, with some varieties already sold out. We had an increase of members using the pre-order/click and collect service this year and this has been very successful because members’ orders were ready on arrival! Thank you to all of our members who took advantage of this and supported us on Potato Weekend.

Potato Weekend 2019

After successful trading over Potato Weekend, we have sold out of Abbot, Desiree, Charlotte, Rocket and Foremost. Setanta is a good alternative to Desiree because it’s blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and they’re ideal for roasting and mashing. We still have the following varieties available loose at £1 per kg:

First Early Potatoes

Arran Pilot
Casablanca
Colleen
Foremost
Lady Christl
Swift

Second Early Potatoes

Kestrel (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Wilja

Main Crop Potatoes

Cara (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Maris Piper (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Nicola
Picasso (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Setanta (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Vales Sovereign

It’s not too late if you have not bought your seed potatoes. The shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm. Click here to see a full list of available potatoes and more information about each variety.

December 11, 2017December 21, 2020

Autumn Working Parties – Part Two

The second working party this autumn was held at the Clare Crescent site in Baldock where we had planted seed potatoes on the last cultivated plot at this site in the spring. This site is still managed by North Herts District Council.

A very loose experiment was run to see which half of it would produce the more tubers with half the plot being ridged up in the traditional way and the second half just dropping the seed potatoes in holes.

Although hardly scientific, the ridged half of the plot produced the best yield by a long way with very little being harvested from the non-ridged part. In fact it was more like trying to find where the rows of potatoes were on this half! Underground tree roots may have had something to do with it too though…

Surplus potatoes from the plot are being donated to Baldock’s Community Centre to help feed those in need this Christmas.

We’d love to have more volunteers help on working parties. They are a great way of building camaraderie and giving something back to the allotment association. The more we can do by members volunteering, the more money we can save from having to call experts in to do work which we could have done ourselves. ‘Banked’ volunteer hours are also used when applying for grants for future improvement work to our sites.

So keep an eye out for the next working parties and come and join in!