Tattie Day

Another annual fixture today - Borders Organic Gardeners' Potato Day and Green Fair, held in Kelso every  first Sunday in March. It is so popular that the queue goes round the building before the doors open - you have to be early, things sell out.

There are dozens of varieties of seed potatoes to chose from and you buy individual tubers. We try to get something different each year, as well as one or two tried and tested.

There are also stalls selling butter and cheese, home made cakes, honey, apple juices, wool from a lady who spins, hand-made cards, willow plant supports - all from small local producers.There's even a cafe with a potato-based menu. And there are lots of enthusiastic and knowledgable  people to give advice on growing potatoes, or anything else fruit-and-vegetably. It's a real good do!

We came home with six or seven kinds of tuber, just a few of each, so there will be some space for the onions, shallots and garlic that we got too. Plus some cream cheese from a Jersey cow, and a home made rhubarb pie.

It's all run, very efficiently, by an army of volunteers. This one is filling up the bin of a potato variety called Rudolf. The customer next to me grabbed a handful - 'we always have them for Christmas dinner' - there's forward planning!