Stacey Solomon has revealed her "new favourite hobby" after sharing a series of Instagram stories that show her getting green-fingered in the garden. Stacey revealed that she's been growing her own potatoes, and posted clips harvesting her latest crop.
With a wicker basket full of freshly dug potatoes, Stacey took her crop back to the kitchen where she whipped up a potato salad. "Absolutely EVERYTHING in here is from my garden," Stacey captioned, although she did confess to adding "an extra squirt of shop mayo because I didn't make enough of my own."
"Why does the feel like the biggest achievement ever?" she added.
Looking to follow in Stacey's footsteps and start growing your own potatoes? Gardening expert Martha Swales shared plenty of great tips with GH on how to start your own kitchen garden.
If you don't have a large garden or vegetable patch like Stacey, it doesn't mean you can't still have a go. "You can plant vegetables including carrots, beetroot, spring onion, kale, cabbage, potatoes and broccoli in outdoor containers," says Martha, adding that there are speedy varieties which grow quickly too - she recommends Charlotte potatoes.
Martha is also a fan of a fresh potato salad and suggests making this the star of the plate, rather than a side dish. "I make a big salad plate out of the first potatoes of spring which I always look forward to. Boil the potatoes and lather them in butter, salt and mayonnaise with chopped radishes," says Martha.
And, if you find yourself with a stack of peelings after creating your tasty dish, don't chuck them away; they could make the start of a natural batch of goodness to help your next crops grow.
"You don’t need to spend money on bottles of liquid feed. There should be plenty of goodness in a bag of peat-free multi-purpose compost or, even better, your own," says Martha. "I always recommend starting your own compost bin, so you can transform all your potato peelings, tea bags and egg box scraps into natural, nutritious feed for your garden."