Potato Day pop-up shop returns to Derbyshire town’s shopping centre for 16th year

The pop-up shop, located in the shopping centre across from Poundland, is set to sell more than 30 varieties of seed potatoes, as well as onions, shallots, garlic, peas, beans, and green manure, to encourage people to grow their own food produce rather than buying from stores.

The money raised by the pre-orders and sales on the day will go towards funding Transition Chesterfield, allowing them to continue running their projects and helping people in the area become more sustainable.

Alastair Meikle, one of the Potato Day organisers, is very much looking forward to the day.

He said: “It’s a good community event, and it raises money so that Transition can pay for their annual insurance so that we can run other events throughout the year.

“It helps keep Transition going for another year, and presumably we’re helping lots of people grow their own vegetables.”

Prior to the event, Transition Chesterfield set up an online ordering system. Orders made via this service are picked up from the shop on the same day.

This year, a record 250 orders were made, amounting to around 9000 seed potatoes sold via orders alone. An extra 3000 will be available to buy on the day.

The shop is set to be open between 9.30am and 1.00pm on January 27.

As well as the Chesterfield shop, there are collection points available in Buxton and Hathersage.