Has anyone been to the potato week at Chilton (Wantage, Oxon) before?.....

[chriscross1966]

and if so, what was it like?..... a bunch of us from work are debating a long lunch mission down there on opening day.....

chrisc

[chriscross1966]

[Unwashed]

Is this the one at Charlton Park Garden Centre?  I haven't been to theirs as such, but they provide the potatoes for the Whitchurch potato day and that's very good, with an excellent range of varieties, talks from experts, and other seeds, sets and goodie.  Good cake too.

[chriscross1966]

Yep, Chilton Park it is....

chrisc

[Digeroo]

Sounds interesting

But I am a bit confused.  There is a Charton Park garden centre near Wantage and a Chilton Country Garden Centre near Didcot.   

This seems to be the one with the potato week

http://www.charlton-park.co.uk/

There is potato weekend at Dundry in Cheltenham.

[mat]

it is Charlton Park, Wantage NOT Chilton Garden Centre.

As previously said, they supply the potato days at Whitchurch.  He also has a stall each week at Newbury market... However... I found not all the potatoes are sold by the tuber at the garden centre, some of the more unusual varieties were only as bags, having said that many are.  I also found many varieties at the potato day were not at the garden centre... prob sold out at the potato day!

I recommend the potato days at Whitchurch... but don't tell too mant people  ;D

If you cannot/don't want to get to Whitchurch, then the garden centre is a good 2nd.  if you've never been to Whitchurch, you'd probably be impressed with the garden centre's choice...

Whitchurch is a manic crush at times... the garden centre is not!!!

Occasionally, potatoes have not been available for the Whitchurch and I have gone to the garden centre to mop up any of my "shopping list"

The garden centre staff are generally very helpful

I no longer live in Oxfordshire, but I still go to Whitchurch!!! it's worth it.  Took my partner last year and it was an eye opener for him!!!

mat

[chriscross1966]

Sounds interesting

But I am a bit confused.  There is a Charton Park garden centre near Wantage and a Chilton Country Garden Centre near Didcot.   

This seems to be the one with the potato week

http://www.charlton-park.co.uk/

There is potato weekend at Dundry in Cheltenham.

oops.... I'm easily confused me.... ??? Can't go to Cheltenham, it'll be ahrd enough winging it for a long lunchbreak to go down to Wantage.... we're in Oxford....

[jonny211]

I got some Yukon Gold off him at Newbury market and they were lovely, but I've only seen him in the spring

[asbean]

We go to Whitchurch every year, it's a date to look forward to.  Bit more of a scrum since they invented their odd queuing/paying system, necessitating long queues snaking round the hall.

Got some excellent Yukon Gold, plus more or less everything else we wanted.  We love being able to buy as many or as few as we want, usually we buy 10-12 different varieties, usually a few old favourites and some new ones too.

Not long to go now (next month) http://www.potatoday.org/

[philcooper]

Sorry about the queuing system but in the rush hour (usually 10.30 - 11.30) a few hundred folk each with anything up to 100 individual tubers - that have to be counted so they can be paid for - are served by the 3 tills we can fit in.

We try to speed it up by having "counters" who check the numbers of individual tubers so those on the till just have to take the money and not do counting as well. If you're not in a hurry, you can select your tubers, leave them in the main hall and go to have a coffee while the rush disappears (around 11.30). I'll look into making a "spud creche" area if folk think that might help.

If anyone can think of a better way I'd love to hear from you - I don't think bar coding individual spuds is the answer!  ;)

Our day is relatively early in the season so some varieties that come in from Europe (and have to be sampled by DEFRA) can be delayed, meaning that they are not available for the day but they do eventually make it into Charlton Park Garden centre.

Richard Stevenson does a fantastic job sourcing the huge quantity of varieties from all over Europe as well as Scotland but then has the nail biting bit in mid - late Jan hoping they all get through in time.

Any other ideas for improving the day - please shout

[mat]

Thanks Phil

Sorry about the queuing system but in the rush hour (usually 10.30 - 11.30) a few hundred folk each with anything up to 100 individual tubers - that have to be counted so they can be paid for - are served by the 3 tills we can fit in.

Being one of these with 100 tubers... I expect queues and have been pleasantly surprised at how quick the payments are made

I'll look into making a "spud creche" area if folk think that might help.

a tattie creche - now thats sounds a brilliant idea.  I for one would love this, as I could leave the pots there and look around the rest of the stand without lugging a hessian sack full of bags of potatoes!

I don't think bar coding individual spuds is the answer!  ;)

ha ha ha  ;D

Our day is relatively early in the season so some varieties that come in from Europe (and have to be sampled by DEFRA) can be delayed, meaning that they are not available for the day but they do eventually make it into Charlton Park Garden centre.

Any other ideas for improving the day - please shout

thanks for this explanation.  I can imagine the project organisation is fraught with frustrations...

A few suggestions...
I go with a list of what I want... I then spend ages finding them because although they are in groupings of "earliness" the potatoes are not in alphabetical order... so I am constantly going up and down the aisles looking for my list of what I (and friends I am going for) require...  If the potato boxes were laid out alphabetically, it would save a lot of time people keep retracing up and down rows (I hear others say "where is ?" too, and also see many other repeatedly go up/down the same aisles!!!)

Secondly, when a variety if not available, I think it's you I search out to find a suitable alternative... perhaps if a variety is not available, or has sold out, a scrawled list could be pinned up of suitable alternatives?

I also note, the new varieties are often not sold as quickly (unless they happen to be varieties which have had a good deal of marketting) as people look but then walk on.  perhaps a quick note on the box on main uses would encourage people to "impulse buy" and try a tuber or two of a new variety they spot... perhaps along the lines of baker/mash. but distintigrates on boiling or good salad potato... something short?

----

Question - will the heritage varieties be available by the tuber this year? (e.g. Salad Blue) ;D

Although I no longer live near Wantage, I still come down for the day.  Thanks for all your efforts in making the day so good.

[philcooper]

Thanks for the understanding comments and the helpful suggestions/queries - I do try to ask people what we could do to improve each year but mostly they just say that it's ok (very pleasing at the time but it doesn't help us try to improve).

On ordering the varieties. The logistics of getting them in alphabetical order has always defeated us. It takes a day of so to load the trolleys with the tubers in Wantage and then load them on the trucks.  It's a team effort to get them off the trucks and onto the tables in the 2 and a half hours we have to set up. - No matter how carefully they are stacked on the trolleys only one out of order causes them to be put out as they appear and so just getting the types together is the best we have ever been able to do.

Alternatives, like everything else to do with the choice of varieties is very much a matter of personal taste, Richard, myself and Tatty Taffy usually ask anyone wanting an alternative what it is they really want for their first choice rather than just a blanket if we haven't got x then try y. We could give it a try.

On information on uses, I try to put that in the catalogue, but you wouldn't believe hope difficult it is to get that sort of information on brand new varieties - strangely the growers seem to claim they are all excellent at most things - the recommendations for use are usually only valid after a couple of years of people trying them (and then the growing conditions, soil time planted etc all conspire to make recommending anything a bit dodgy - I remember recommending Picasso as being more resistant to slugs than many other varieties in my experience and Gardens' World said the same - the gardener then grew them in a very moist plot near a river and harvested only husks as the slugs had eaten nearly all of them!)

We expect to repeat the way we sold the varieties we did this year, I'll jhave word with Richard to see if he has any plans to change things.

Thanks again for the feedback - any more?