Most of the things I grow are meticulously planned, hours spent poring over seed catalogues, looking through old planning diaries and following a strict rotation of crops.

Yet, every now and again nature throws up a surprise. Look at these potatoes for example! Last year I threw a few tiny potatoes in the compost bin, Mr T and I agreed they were just too tiny to be worth eating. This summer we watched as a potato plant began to sprout through the slats of the compost bin, I was tempted to “tidy” it up, pull off the greenery and remove the unsightly growth. Luckily Mr T persuaded me to leave it be. It flourished, flowering madly all summer, I couldn’t help it, I picked off each flower just the way I do with the allotment potatoes and waited for the inevitable blight to strike. But this lone potato grew and grew. Finally, this week I emptied the compost bin, topping up the veg plot with the end result of our rotted down tea bags, cardboard and veg peelings. There in the middle I discovered this beauty.

Bigger than my hand, I dug around and found more, gorgeous red skinned potatoes. We had them roasted for tea and the next day mashed on top of a fish pie.

A fine example of food for free don’t you think?