I am a gardening newbie. This is only my second season stumbling along, trying to grow as many of the veggies we eat on a regular basis as I can. Not only for myself and Mister Dreamer, but also my mother in law who is incredibly supportive and encouraging of our efforts. I think she is in it for all the green onions she can eat but I consider it a small price to pay for the experiences and memories gardening has blessed us with, not to mention the food!
I honestly don’t think I have been as excited about anything in the garden as I was about growing potatoes. Pictured above is the harvest from 2 plants, and not all the way to the bottom of the area they are growing in, either. It’s like a treasure hunt but more on that later.
Why a “Rock Star?” Let me explain. Potatoes are the world’s 4th largest crop behind wheat, maize, and rice. It is considered a staple food the world over and we love them. We eat a LOT of potatoes, especially in winter with all the soups and stews and tasty side dishes, big breakfasts on Sundays… I would have to say the single most wonderful thing about potatoes is their absolute diversity. Let’s face it, it is kind of hard to mess up cooking them. The russet potatoes sold in the grocery store are just like everything else: shipped in by barge. You can be sure they have been sprayed down and God-knows-what-else done to it so that they will not only make the long trip, they will also last on the shelf and then in our cupboard for a reasonable amount of time. I know, potatoes are meant to be stored for months at a time and all but these are cleaned, sprayed, jostled around, and shipped long distances. After all of that, you are lucky if they will last
So when Mister Dreamer got a wild hair one day and built what was dubbed the “Taterberry Patch” (due to strawberries and potatoes being grown in the space), I went out to our local nursery and bought some russet potato ‘seed.’ I cut them so there was 2-3 eyes on each chunk, let it sit a few hours to harden up a little and then planted them. The picture shows the young plants (on the right). We planted them in May. We couldn’t believe how much green growth there was! I left the whole area to Mister Dreamer to tend as he had expressed interest in having an area that was ‘his’ so I let it be. I am not one to discourage anybody from getting their hands dirty and growing some food. In the end, it should have probably been watered more, mounded more, and the plants staked up. I also did not know that each time he was watering, he was adding in Garden Grog (made in Point Baker, Alaska!) plant booster! No wonder the plants were so huge and bushy and utterly took over more than half of the space! I was afraid that was the cause of all the green growth and that the plant wasn’t putting much into actual tuber growth. I had read somewhere that you wanted to be careful when feeding potato plants. Anyway, he stopped doing it in late June and we just let nature do her thing.
Curiosity won! We just had to see if we had been successful growing potatoes.
Here we are at the end of August and the plants are beginning to yellow up. It could be that we forgot to water them, it could be the insane amount of slugs that are all over them, or it could be the little bugs and creepy crawlies that enjoy a nice free meal of tasty potato leaf (not pests per se, but those little holes can’t all be from slugs!). I suppose it could just be time. Today, our curiosity got the better of us and we just had to see if we had been successful growing potatoes. We decided to dig around only one plant in the front. At first, ti seemed like there was nothing except a lot of roots and then…the first potato peeked out of the dirt and I said, “Oh look! It’s so little!” As we kept carefully moving dirt, we saw it was not a small tater at all! It was HUGE! A very nice, well shaped potato that we call “bakers.” I believe I may have squealed with joy and I know I giggled like a kid at Christmas as I pulled this gorgeous tuber out of the ground. We were down about 4-5 inches and then the bounty showed itself. In all, we only dug down about 10 inches and in a foot-and-a-half diameter section. We ended up with the potatoes you see in the title picture! I was so happy, I actually teared up and held up two monster spuds in the air declaring our awesome-ness.
My mind flooded with what it means to actually grow our own potatoes and never having to buy any again. All of the ways I can think of potatoes being packaged and cooked such as dehydrated, frozen, canned, and fresh are part of systems I already have in place! They are very easy to replant and let overwinter or plant in the Spring when the ground is workable. Just like garlic, as long as you hold a few back, you are able to plant and sustain without any outside assistance indefinitely.
We went back and picked some more but not all. Just cleared out the front and ended up with about 8-10 pounds of potatoes! I am going to jar some up with garlic and onion to be used this winter and I expect I will also dehydrate some for more Stew Starters. The rest of the plants were mounded up high and watered. We hope they will last another month before completely dying off. Even if we only get another 10 pounds of out it, I still feel like a Rock Star for having successfully grown this very important food staple. Next year’s goal: growing 100 pounds of potatoes. 🙂