Topic: Mayan Gold Potatoes - review

[Mortality]

I bought 2 packs of these from Tescos (2 for £3 offer) to have with Christmas dinner, an elongated potato a nice shape to peel with no deep eyes, yellowy in colour.

(Roast Beef, Roast potatoes, Yorkshire puds with home grown Peas, French Beans, Carrots and Leeks)

I thought i'd do a quick review of them here (yes, I know I didnt grow em)

Prior to roasting them i part boiled them to get em fluffy and its true whats been said, they do cook really quickly, after 20 mins they were starting to go to mush.
After roasting they were lovely, crispy and fluffy and they do retain the lovely yellowy colour, taste was great.

I will be keeping some of the smaller ones to grow this summer in my postage stamp garden  ;D

[goodlife]

yes they are nice. The few that I got other year I made into..well..sort of oven chips..and they were lovely. They didn't need no pre-cooking neither ;D
Soo..they do them in tescos ;D..cheaper way getting some for seed rather than ordering.

[Deb P]

I've grown these for a few years now, you do get a much wider range of sizes when you grow them yourself. Good for steaming and roasting, useless for mash, you end up with a soup within 5 mins....

[Unwashed]

I grew BioGold year before last - I think they are essentially the same thing.  They were nice enough, and very good value because the seed is very small so you get a lot per kg.

[aj]

They are great for roasties and I try to grow a few each year just for the pleasure of a couple of meals.

[realfood]

I would not par-boil any potato for roasting more than 5 mins max.

[Digeroo]

I do mine in the microwave and then finish them off with a bit of butter in the frying pan - delicious.

Does anyone know if they are still available in tesco I do love them  I only had five very small seed potatoes this year and they were excellent even in the drought produced lots of small potatoes.   They produced a forest of green stalks. 

[Mortality]

I put in a delivery order for today, they are back to 1.5kg bag for £2 (Tesco).

[Dandytown]

Are Mayan Gold anything like Pink Fir potatoes?

2010 was my first year for harvesting potatoes and I enjoyed every minute of it, sifting through the soil as if looking for nuggets of gold.

With the smaller varieties, is it difficult to extract all the potatoes? (not that its a deterent!)

[Dandytown]

Just searched the net and pink fir apple are a salad potato.  Thanks for mentioning Mayan Gold as I will now be growing them and Pink Fir Apple.  Thanks

[chriscross1966]

Nothing is really like PFA except that French imposter La Ratte and the PFA cross (with a Desiree of all things) Anya.... Actually Congo are a bit, similar long thin knobbly tubers with loads of eyes but you don't get the wild (and entertaining) shapes and the d**n things are even later than PFA (wouldn't have believed it until I grew them)...

[1066]

I grew Mayan Gold this year (thanks to a swapsie on here  8) ) and loved them. I used them more as a salad potato, and they really didn't need much cooking - gently gently does it. As to yield, it wasn't great, but I don't water my spuds, and we had a very dry summer, and they still produced. Will be growing them again this year  :)

[Jayb]

Nothing is really like PFA except that French imposter La Ratte and the PFA cross (with a Desiree of all things) Anya.... Actually Congo are a bit, similar long thin knobbly tubers with loads of eyes but you don't get the wild (and entertaining) shapes and the d**n things are even later than PFA (wouldn't have believed it until I grew them)...

;D I know you are passionate about PFA but I'm quite partial to Ratte  ;D  In my opinion long may they both remain. For anyone interested,  Pink Fir Apple was bred in France around 1850. La Ratte or Ratte is originally thought to be the variety Asparges, which originated from Denmark, dating back to at least 1872.

I wasn't that wowed by Mayan Gold, I was a little disappointed that they were dryer in taste than I imagined but can quite see why they are popular

[1066]

I've ordered Ratte for this year to try instead of PFA  - will be interesting to see how it goes. Think I will have to go to Tescos for my Mayan spuds  :)

[Ian Pearson]

The interesting thing about Mayan Gold of course, is that it is only half potato (Solanum Tuberosum). It is a cross with the related plant Solanum phureja. Commercial potato breeders seem to be getting good results (with an emphasis on taste) by using this for crossing with existing potato varieties.

If you like Pink fir apple, you might be interested to see a cross between Pink fir apple and Solanum phureja. Mayan Gold also gets a mention, on this post:
http://oca-testbed.blogspot.com/2010/10/whats-that-other-andean-tuber.html
And before anyone asks, I don't have any to swap this year! :-)
Ian

[Deb P]

It is also worth noting that I found this variety to be more blight resistant than the other varieties I grow, must be due to the genetic heritage. The leaves are smaller, thicker and more deeply indented than 'normal' potato foliage, pretty dark purple flowers too! ;D

[triffid]

Would also love to try these ...
Any drawbacks to planting regular supermarket Mayan Gold spuds rather than designated MG seed spuds?

[Deb P]

I guess only the supposed risk of supermarket tubers not guaranteed to be virus or blight free, but a lot of people seem to do just that and have no problems!

[Spudbash]

Last year, I experimented with growing a couple of Anyas from leftover spuds I got from Sainsbury's, comparing them to Anyas grown from proper seed potatoes. I grew them all in pots on the patio, together, because I don't have an allotment.

It was a pretty unusual season here in Hampshire, with late frosts followed by hot, dry weather. The result was clear, though: the supermarket ones did very badly, compared with the ones grown from seed potatoes. They were slow to start, grew far less vigorously and the yield was poor.

I think the Sainsbury's ones had probably been sprayed with growth inhibitor to prevent them from sprouting.

So I wouldn't recommend supermarket spuds for growing, but will be going along to the Potato Day at Whitchurch, Hants, as usual. Hope to pick up some Mayan Golds there.  :)

[1066]

If you like Pink fir apple, you might be interested to see a cross between Pink fir apple and Solanum phureja. Mayan Gold also gets a mention, on this post:
http://oca-testbed.blogspot.com/2010/10/whats-that-other-andean-tuber.html

Interesting link Ian, thanks  :)