Long term volunteers will remember that many years ago RHET nationally used to have the Count and Grow Project.  When this came to an end, the RHET ACI Committee decided that potato growing was too important in Angus to not have a potato project, so the Angus Potato Project rose like a Pheonix from the flames!

The Scottish Office of McCain Potatoes Ltd is in Angus and so they came forward as a project partner, as did Scanstone and more recently East Coast Viners, Scotmid have also helped with funding for a number of years through their Community Fund. 

The project is advertised to schools shortly after Christmas and is usually closed to applications within a couple of weeks, as it is often over-subscribed.  The number of classes is capped at 50 and so participation usually exceeds 1,200 pupils.

We do flag up that the project is most suitable for P4/5 but we have has classes from nursery to secondary ASN classes taking part.  Once we know what schools are signed up they are linked with a RHET volunteer, who will then arrange with the class to go and plant their potatoes with them just before Easter and talk to them about growing potatoes.  For this planting session every class is provided with a large planting tub, a large bag of compost and 6 seed potatoes from McCain, a variety called Shepody which is grown specifically for Macdonalds’ fries.  The pupils choose their 3 competition potatoes and weigh them before planting.  They then have to care for the potatoes before harvesting them in the last week of the summer term.  What the classes do with their harvest varies, some take them home, many cook with them in the class and some have even used them for enterprise projects, selling what they make with them. 

COVID also affected this project as we couldn’t send volunteers into school, so Carol made a short video taking classes through the planting process.  This can watched below:

In 2021 we delivered all the potatoes equipment and then did two live planting session via Microsoft TEAMS to support teachers through the planting process.  Hopefully in 2022 we will be back to sending RHET volunteers into class to plant with the children!