The Potato Harvest

When I planted my seed potatoes, I really had no idea what I was doing. I cut the around the potato eyes and had little one inch chunks that I let dry and form a "callous" to avoid rot. Then I planted them. I had little hope for them. I placed sticks in the ground to mark where I planted them, convinced that nothing would come up and knowing I wouldn't recognize them if they did.

Then I stopped paying attention. Notice the weeds in that picture. Maybe I watered them once. They were off the side of the garden, planted near the air conditioner and I rarely thought about them. Weeks after planting them, I started to notice them and thought I might actually enjoy some home grown potatoes after all.

I think I would have been able to make quite a few potato dishes this fall. Except for the watermelon jungle I've already described (btw, I have at least three on the vines--the largest is now bigger than my hand! That's a lot of growth in one week so I have hope it might ripen after all). The jungle choked the life out of the potato plants and ended the growth of the potatoes. It has also overtaken one of the giant marigolds and I have to pull it back away from my tomatoes nearly every other day now.

Confronted with dead plants, there was nothing to do but harvest what I could. After moving enough of the jungle to see soil, I used a spade to gently loosen and remove dirt and look for potatoes. It was funny--the red potatoes were like Easter eggs someone had hidden for me to find. They were no longer attached to the plant. The white potatoes still looked like they belonged to the plant. I read that I should let them dry out outside first, but given the rain, that's not really working. I'll probably bring them in to cook either tomorrow or Friday. I'm thinking a nice potato-kale stir-fry. Mmmm...