potato sprouts
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Lots of spuds coming up! Exciting. As they grow up, I fill in the trenches with dirt until the trenches are filled in, always leaving the top leaves of the plants uncovered and in the sun.potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)
a happy Easter with freshly dug potatoes
The over wintered potatoes I dug on Good Friday were grilled to perfection today (with onions) by the head griller here (my spouse). Really nice with spring lamb, broccoli and asparagus, spinach salad and dyed eggs. We were joined by my parents and had a good time together. I had a big surprise on awakening – kind of like Christmas – the Easter bunny left a couple gifts for me right in the middle of the dining room: a big red wheel barrow, a new rake and a garden shovel!…
Good Friday for planting potatoes
Good Friday is a traditional day for planting potatoes. I didn’t get mine in today, but I did dig up about 2 pounds of nice little potatoes that I missed last fall. They’ll be good roasted with my Easter lamb. A little rosemary, a little garlic, ahh….. And I measured my potato patch today: 11 by 3 ft. I noticed that some of the potatoes I dug had started to sprout a little already, so looks like it is time to plant. Hopefully I’ll get mine in next week –…
a discovery – over wintered beets and potatoes!
I was amazed to find a pretty little Chiogga beet and two fingerling potatoes at my plot. They look great after that terrible winter. I’m looking forward to a taste of my garden tomorrow evening! (Maybe with some over wintered kale.) I’ll have to search through the soil for more. I knew there was one end of the potato bed that I didn’t search through good enough last year.
real onions sprouts and more sowing
My onions finally sprouted. It took 8-9 days. Of the 3 varieties I planted, I have low germination of one (red), none in another (White Portugal), and good germination of the third (Sweet Yellow Spanish). Pretty little sprouts. So brave and bright! Today I planted seeds for lavender, thyme and celeriac. These are supposed to be started 8-10 weeks before frost. I also started 4 pots of tomato plants – very early, just to see if I can get a very early tomato. These will need to be transplanted to…
first seeds sown
Right on schedule, my onions are sown: one flat each of white, yellow and red onions. 11 weeks before my last frost date – April 30.
potato pancakes
I ran into a very nice woman and dog the other day and we walked around the fields and talked. She’s a good cook and, when I told her I grow potatoes, she asked “what do you do with potatoes?” (with her expression implying “why on earth would anyone want to eat potatoes…”) I sheepishly told her, “well I like to make French fries…..” Then I thought it best to change the subject. But I do enjoy cooking with potatoes. In early summer, when I first dig small handfuls of…
more on the International Year of the Potato
Here’s a very nice video on the Year of the Potato pointed out to me by Patrick. Some interesting points from the video: – 4,500 potato varieties are native to Peru. The shapes, size and colors of the native potatoes are a revelation. The names, too. – More than 80 per cent of these are now preserved in a gene bank in Lima – Some of these varieties may be several thousand years old and they are being hand down from generation to generation by the Andean farmers…. – Potatoes…
my seed potato order
I didn’t know 2008 was the UN year of the Potato. The International Year of the Potato has raised awareness of the potato’s fundamental importance as a staple food of humanity. But it also had a very practical aim: to promote development of sustainable potato-based systems that enhance the well-being of producers and consumers and help realize the potato’s full potential as a “food of the future” Ah yes, a “food of the future”. I was thinking the same. But in a less global sense. I’d like to expand my…
humble leek and potato soup
Marian Morash says this is a “perfectly simple, humble soup is wonderful for supper on a cold, wet day”. I got the recipe from page 158 of the Victory Garden Cookbook, but substituted celeriac for celery and plain yogurt for heavy cream. It was absolutely fantastic! Gretta pulled this leek from her field last week. (The potatoes, onion and celeriac are from her CSA share.) I’m thinking of growing leeks next year, so I looked up some information. Leeks are another vegetable that do well very late into the cold…
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy
weeks and counting until my last spring frost
My garden this week
Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!
