An Irishman's Diary

AS IF things weren’t bad enough already, I notice that my favourite potatoes have become very hard to find recently, at least in Dublin. In long-term decline because of the many challenges involved with growing the crop, Golden Wonder supplies have been further hit of late by a severe shortage of seed. Which may explain why, if you managed to buy any of the latter recently, you paid through the nose for it.

Readers who know anything about potatoes – and that excludes most Dubliners and everybody under 35 – will not need to be told that the Golden Wonder is the king of all spuds. Yes, the Kerr’s Pink has a lot to be said for it too. So has the British Queen. Even the ubiquitous Rooster, introduced to the market only in 1991 but spreading like rhododendron ever since, has its fans among thinking consumers.

But to floury-potato lovers – and there is no other kind, really – the Golden Wonder is the nonpareil. It is the driest variety of all and therefore, when handled properly, the flouriest. Moreover, it also has a flavour unparalleled. I’m tempted to describe this in the language of wine criticism: full body, smooth finish, notes of buttercup and daisy, etc. But I won’t.

Suffice to say it is very tasty: more than can be said for most spuds on the market, and for almost all those served in restaurants.

The sad truth is, this doesn’t seem to matter to the general public. Such is the lack of interest among consumers in what was once the national vegetable that the term “new season potatoes” now widely passes for a description of the variety. I suspect those of us who scour the small print on bags to find out what exactly they contain are considered supermarket eccentrics: the sort of people you hurry past in case they start talking to you.

Most shoppers judge spuds on superficial appearance alone, which is sorely misguided. I spoke before of potato “lovers”. And all right, the plant’s erotic potential is fairly limited: except, I suppose, in that many of us like to bring it home, get it hot, take its clothes off, and then smother it with butter.

But there’s the point. The feature potatoes are most judged on is also the first part of them we throw away, before or after cooking. So the beauty of this, of all vegetables, can surely not be skin-deep.

The Golden Wonder is certainly no pin-up. Even when washed, the best it can manage is a dull yellow colour, promoted to “golden” by its wishful creators. Its shape is unimpressive too. You will never see a round one, and even the oblong format is quite beyond it. Instead it is almost invariably conical, like an elongated egg.

The “wonder” part of its name is all inside. But to get that from seed to plate is highly problematical, which explains the variety’s rarity, 104 years after it was introduced. The Golden Wonder is notoriously low-yielding. It is also very susceptible to rust spot, which when it strikes can wipe out an entire crop.

On top of that, it is a late variety. It may be November before you can harvest, when wet conditions are all but guaranteed. Which in turn explains why Golden Wonders were traditionally grown mainly in Ireland’s southern counties, with their drier soils.

Even in your saucepan, it still presents challenges. Boiling potatoes should not require a diploma from the National College of Catering, God knows. But with floury varieties, some finesse is needed. Leave your Wonders simmering too long and you may end up with potato soup instead of what you had planned.

Needless to say, there is no such problem with the “waxy” or “soapy” potatoes that so many Dubliners apparently prefer (because they don’t know any better). You can boil those things for hours and they won’t break up. Nor will they lose their taste, because, of course, they didn’t have any to start with.

Oddly enough, this last fact does not seem to present a problem for most restaurants, which prefer their spuds to be 1. Small, 2. Aesthetically pleasing, and 3. Indestructible. In that order. Flavour is beaten into a distant fourth, out of the money.

Happily, there is some good news about the Golden Wonder potato famine: which, like the economy, seems to have turned the corner. A niche market it may now be. But the robust loyalty of Golden Wonder consumers means that the shortage of seed (apparently caused by a collapse in Scottish supplies, upon which Irish merchants had become reliant to the exclusion of local producers) is now being redressed.

Furthermore, after a succession of sodden summers, this is so far shaping up to be a very good year for potatoes generally. So there are grounds for hope that the 2010-11 season will be a particularly excellent vintage of Golden Wonders.

You may think the term "vintage" is overblown in this context. Au contraire. As all potato connoisseurs know, Golden Wonders mature with age, just like good wine. We're talking months here, obviously, not years. But with their high quotient of dry matter, they last longer than other varieties. And the flavour actually improves for a few months after picking, so that it can be wise to "lay them down", as we say, for a period: in your potato cellar or wherever.

• fmcnally@irishtimes.com