But they aren't. They are potato seeds, on a plant of Sarpo Axona. Potatoes and Tomatoes are of course closely related.
I have three different types of Sarpo potato in my garden at present, growing in pots like all the other varieties.
The Sarpo potatoes are the product of development work done by the Sarvari Trust, who have been trying to develop blight-resistant potatoes. Some people claim that the disease-resistance that these potatoes exhibit has been achieved at the expense of taste and texture, so I am growing mine (kindly provided FOC by David Shaw of the Sarvari Trust) to see for myself.
David has told me that it is possible to propagate potatoes from their seeds, so I might just try! So far there are only the two pods seen above, which I shall jealously guard, but it would be nice to have a few more, so I'll be scanning the plants carefully. The preferred method is supposed to be just like the one used for saving tomato seeds - fermenting them in water for a few days to remove the gelatinous pulp, which can inhibit germination. I'm not sure whether potato seeds have gelatinous pulp, but I intend to find out in due course!
I always love to experiment with things like that. It is fun to see what happens.
ReplyDeleteI had lots of potato seeds on my first crop here many years ago. The seeds are poisonous and look so edible that I had to swiftly remove them all in case any of the children here picked them by mistake. Having said that, I may have missed a few because I keep getting potatoes springing up in the most unlikely places!
ReplyDeleteI'd never seen them before and was wondering what those little tomato looking things were. In july I blogged about it and now I've read your piece I know the answer. (http://josefienslife.blogspot.nl/2015/07/aardappels-en-uien-oogsten-harvesting.html) Thank you!
ReplyDeleteGrowing from the seeds would be an interesting thing to try. You could create a new variety. I'll be interested to see what you make of the flavour although the problem is that the flavour cookability can be different on different soil and in different climatic conditions.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a fun project. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested in how it works out. I had dozens of the potato berries last year but not in any of the previous 10 years I've grown potatoes.
ReplyDeleteI'll be following you closely on this one because I ALSO had some potato seeds on one of my Yukon Gold plants. I've picked them and they are now safely in the basement waiting until I figure out what to do with them.
ReplyDeleteIve got some potato seeds too, on my mains. But don't think I'll be organised enough to try saving seeds, so will be interesting to see what happens with yours.
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