When I am an old woman I shall grow purple

...potatoes!

I went to the garden centre in Cardigan to get some seed poatoes and was thrilled to find this variety, called Purple Majesty. I remember my father growing similar when I was a child in the 1950s. Where he sourced them I have no idea but he made a habit of cultivating rare varieties of the sort that would now be called 'heritage'.

Purple potatoes have become popular in recent years because they contain a high proportion of the antioxidants called anthocyanins which are said to have health benefits especially for older people. (The Japanese island of Okinawa where purple sweet potatoes are a big component of the diet has an exceptionally healthy elderly population – a large number of whom are aged over 100 years. Rates of dementia on Okinawa are reported as much as 50% lower than in the West.)


Jenny Joseph's well-known poem Warning (whence title)  was written in 1961 when purple was not considered a suitable choice for elderly ladies. That at least has changed. Who cares now if you have purple hair, purple nails or pie and purple mash, whatever your age?