Thanks guys. Off to get some compost today - don't have my own heap yet
I was thinking, I'm pretty sure we have rats here about. Would they pose a problem? Do they like potatoes?
If the rats are hungry and there are spuds accessible they will eat and contaminate a tremendous amount.
As a kid in the 1950's we had 40 yard long potato graves or clamps as some folk know them the graves stood over six feet tall at the apex.
I think 1954 was a heck of a year for bad weather with massive amounts of snow . Where we lived in Lincolnshire the snow was a good two feet deep on some of the flattest land in the UK .
Dad was a land worker , in the Feb they had to open up some of the graves to riddle extra potatoes for sale in the shops as most had run out of edible greens and carrots . The root crops were being dug out the ground with pneumatic hammers as it was frozen solid to a depth of over a foot deep .
I remember Dad coming home after dark and saying to mum , " I'll be needing my ratlings tomorrow Mabs , there's hundreds of rats in the grave eating no end of potatoes . This morning Vic Lunn had a rat run up his trousers leg and got bitten on his **** " .
Ratlins were a local name for " Rat lines " ... 24 inch long hemp cords or binder band used to tie the trousers and jackets at the knee or just above the wrist when working in rat infested places such as corn stacks , potato graves or in the granary where the 18 stone bags of corn were stored till the miller brought them or the farmer wanted them for feedstuffs .