Potato. . .potato . . .potato. . . (NHDC) YUMMY UPDATE

[dlapierre]

Sounds somewhat familiar. Where I lived before BC was Cochrane Alberta. 63 frost free days, on average. Farmers only grew green feed (unripe barley). Good soil but risky weather.
Vancouver Islanders I knew who lived on rocks hoarded seaweed, for the most part, to build their soil beds. Except once, they took a van load of sheep manure almost home from my BC barn one winter, leaving it at a ferry terminal. They left it too long. It started to decompose once the weather warmed and pretty much ruined their van.

[rodekyll]

Yes, seaweed is good.  A local state park leaves the service gate unlocked for seaweed gatherers.  Kelp is good too, and if you add some clam or oyster shells and household compost I understand you can have real dirt in a few years.

I spent a summer scraping seasoned manure from corral enclosures.  It was fun -- one on the skid scoop and the other driving a war surplus jeep around in circles.  We'd get paid to clear the ground and then paid by the load to deliver it to various customers.  Seasoned manure has a musky, but clean smell.  Rotten manure is pretty rank.  It needs a lot of sun and circulation to not rot.  I pity the van.  Could you imagine if it turned bad on the car deck?  Ewww!  I'll bet the crew would have rolled it over the side . . .   

[rodekyll]

I stuck my fingers down where a potato vine had just wilted off and grabbed a handful of Yukon Gold potatoes.  They're the same size and color, etc as store-bought.  As 'new' (not seasoned for skin toughness) they cut easily into fries.  The interior has that yellow tint that gives them their name.  The fries cook up perfectly -- crispy crust and soft inside.  I added them to a plate of fresh 'butt cheeks for some superb fish and chips. 

You can't beat Alaska home-grown.   

[Lannis]

I grow my own vegetables.

This year - Spinach, radishes, peas, blackeyed peas, pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelons, tomatoes, corn, squash, zucchini, pole beans, bush beans, green peppers, okra.

All better than what you can buy in a store.   No artificial fertilizer, no artificial pesticides, the dog keeps out the deer and bears, Jobu the scarecrow keeps out the crows, and Winnie the solar-powered owl keeps out the furry varmints.   The turtles get a few tomatoes but we're drowning in them so they're welcome.

The relative cost isn't an issue - the quality is!

Lannis

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Before the introduction of potatos, the Irish probably ate kale and turnips.  The Scots ate oats and sheep, two of the primary ingredients
 of Haggis.   Haggis being a sheeps' stomach filled with a sort of meatloaf mixture of heart, liver, and lungs, and other stuff to create an enormous looking sausage kind of thing.
 Each clan had its' own recipe.  Some worse than others.

[Aaron D.]

Our garden is a mess after being gone for pretty much July. Great tomatoes, peppers, kale is ok but struggling with crab grass, as are the collards and cabbages.

Best blueberries so far this year, asparagus beds actually produced too-but the weeds, the weeds.

Not sure what to do, weeds have seeded and are ready to do it again. As I see more bike travel, we may cut back and do the farmer's markets for a while.

Oh-several renegade potatoes too, in the abandoned bed.

[56Pan]

I've canned 40 qts. of tomatoes already and still got them coming out my ears.  Wife has been blanching, peeling and putting them in the freezer too.  I won't put out this many plants next year.  Perfect hot summer with enough rain in NC for them this year.

[Lannis]

Our garden is a mess after being gone for pretty much July. Great tomatoes, peppers, kale is ok but struggling with crab grass, as are the collards and cabbages.

Crabgrass in the watermelon, cantaloupes, and pumpkins is my biggest weed problem.   Have to pull it by hand, can't get the tiller in there, and it takes tons of mulch (expensive) to fix it.

And it's hard not to plant "too many" tomatoes and squash.   You don't know how many will survive, and you don't want to be short.

But if they ALL survive, then you can't stand to throw away perfectly good vegetables .... and you can and freeze until you're tired of it ....

Lannis

[ITSec]

Wonder what the Irish ate before the potato was introduced to Europe ?

  Dusty

The Welsh. Tasty!

[oldbike54]

The Welsh. Tasty!

 

 OK then , what did the Italians eat before the tomato was proven to be edible to the inhabitants of Europe ?

  Dusty

[Chuck in Indiana]

I stuck my fingers down where a potato vine had just wilted off and grabbed a handful of Yukon Gold potatoes.  They're the same size and color, etc as store-bought.  As 'new' (not seasoned for skin toughness) they cut easily into fries.  The interior has that yellow tint that gives them their name.  The fries cook up perfectly -- crispy crust and soft inside.  I added them to a plate of fresh 'butt cheeks for some superb fish and chips. 

You can't beat Alaska home-grown.   

So how is the experiment between seed potatoes and your potatoes turning out?

[Howard R]

I stuck my fingers down where a potato vine had just wilted off and grabbed a handful of Yukon Gold potatoes.  They're the same size and color, etc as store-bought.  As 'new' (not seasoned for skin toughness) they cut easily into fries.  The interior has that yellow tint that gives them their name.  The fries cook up perfectly -- crispy crust and soft inside.  I added them to a plate of fresh 'butt cheeks for some superb fish and chips. 

You can't beat Alaska home-grown.   

Yeah, you forgot to answer the basic question of the whole thread.  Are you eating the "seed" half of the row, or the "store" half?

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

as a pretty serious gardener... I never bother with potatoes and hardly with onions...  The only onions I plant are to pick as spring onions...  but no growing to maturity, seasoning, and storing for me....  Thats two items that are too cheap at the grocer to take up valuable garden space, plus potatoes are lot of work!

I have grown small batches of specialty/heirloom potatoes using the tire stack method.. but a significant crop? no thanks.

[rodekyll]

HMMM.  I had reported on the difference a month or so back.  The post seems to have disappeared.

I planted 5 pieces of grocery store spud and 5 of hardware store stock.  The grocery store ones did not grow.  None.  Next time I'll leave them lying around till they sprout and then plant them. 

I had 4/5 hardware store plants come up.  They were cut from two seed potatoes.  A sickly plant that made little deer-dropping tubers and the one that didn't grow were from one tuber.  The three that did well were from the other.

Mayor -- I did this as an experiment to answer a question, not to pretend I'm some master gardener with a truck farm.

[ITSec]

 

 OK then , what did the Italians eat before the tomato was proven to be edible to the inhabitants of Europe ?

  Dusty

Alfredo sauce, risotto - and lots (and lots) of wine...

[canuguzzi]

What you grow and take out of the ground tastes better than anything someone else is selling to you. You know what you put into it.

[Lannis]

as a pretty serious gardener... I never bother with potatoes and hardly with onions...  The only onions I plant are to pick as spring onions...  but no growing to maturity, seasoning, and storing for me....  Thats two items that are too cheap at the grocer to take up valuable garden space, plus potatoes are lot of work!

I have grown small batches of specialty/heirloom potatoes using the tire stack method.. but a significant crop? no thanks.

I'm going to be experimenting with onions.    After having eaten Vidalia onions for some time now, I just can't go back to the strong, bitter "normal" yellow or white onions that you buy.   I'm going to see what kind of "sweet" onion I can grow, because Vidalias are pretty expensive and not always available.

I agree, though, that when potatoes are $.40 a pound, it's not worth plowing, planting, cultivating, digging, cleaning, and storing your own ....

Lannis

[canuguzzi]

Are you kidding? Potatoes have to be one of the easiest things to grow. The hardest part is digging them up fast enough to eat them before they either get too big or too many.

[rodekyll]

Sometimes we get gnarly old soft Russets under $1/pound.  Good spuds like reds or Yukons run from about $1.25 - $1.80/lb.  The best 'deals' are 5# bags @ about $6.00.  There are no fresh veggies in town, ever.  A truck from Chelan, WA makes the rounds of SE bush communities on the ferry.  Their stuff is the freshest (and they do special orders), but it's still at least two weeks old by the time it swims to Sitka.  I got very spoiled on good food as a kid -- we farmed acreage for subsistence and barter.  Store bought produce always looks limp and tastes 'turned' to me.

[Lannis]

Are you kidding? Potatoes have to be one of the easiest things to grow. The hardest part is digging them up fast enough to eat them before they either get too big or too many.

Yes.   

But to get a potato, you have to:

1) Plow up the ground.

2) Make rows with a middlebuster or however you like to make rows

3) Cut up the seed potatoes and set them in the ground

4) Cover up the potatoes

5) Cultivate the ground so that the weeds won't choke out the young plants.

6) Spade up the potatoes, or use the middlebuster again, and separate the potatoes from the dirt.

7) Clean and store the ones you are going to use in a cool dry place.

Not much different from any other vegetable, but (A) I can't tell any difference between my potatoes and store potatoes, whereas I CAN tell a significant difference with my corn, tomatoes, okra, etc etc and (B) Potatoes are still dirt cheap in the store, compared to other produce .....

Lannis

[Chuck in Indiana]

^^^^ yep. And I'll add another. Corn. Takes way too much space and labor. You can buy sweet corn at farmer's stands for practically nothing.
Tomatoes, however, are special.  There's nothing better than an Indiana tomato. I just brought in a half sack today. I'll be doing some stuffed tomatoes tomorrow..
FWIW, when the grand kids were here from the City of the Angles, they didn't like fresh tomatoes.  Didn't taste like anything they'd ever had..

[oldbike54]

  :1: On the vine ripened tomatoes , Indiana or otherwise . Big ol beefsteak , picked at just the right time , sliced thick , between two slices of good bread , touch of M&M , very lightly salted 

  Dusty

[Lannis]

^^^^ yep. And I'll add another. Corn. Takes way too much space and labor. You can buy sweet corn at farmer's stands for practically nothing.

Just goes to show.   In my opinion, you cannot beat the flavor of corn where you already have the water boiling when you pull the ears off the stalk.  Shuck it, silk it, into the pot, and you're eating it 12 minutes after it was picked.

You just can't do that with corn bought from a stand.   Stale old stuff was probably picked yesterday or even the day before.   Besides which, we don't even have many farmer's produce stands around here.   Except for Saturday morning in the town Farmer's Market, there just aren't any.

Corn's my favorite in the garden for that reason.   Tomatoes - same reason as yours!!

Lannis

[Chuck in Indiana]

Just goes to show.   In my opinion, you cannot beat the flavor of corn where you already have the water boiling when you pull the ears off the stalk.  Shuck it, silk it, into the pot, and you're eating it 12 minutes after it was picked.

You just can't do that with corn bought from a stand.   Stale old stuff was probably picked yesterday or even the day before.   Besides which, we don't even have many farmer's produce stands around here.   Except for Saturday morning in the town Farmer's Market, there just aren't any.

Corn's my favorite in the garden for that reason.   Tomatoes - same reason as yours!!

Lannis

Forgot. I live in corn country.  Fresh corn? No problemo..

[Aaron D.]

Potatoes hard to grow? Sheesh. Just get them into the ground.

[Lannis]

Potatoes hard to grow? Sheesh. Just get them into the ground.

So, which of the steps that I laid out above do you skip, in growing potatoes?   Maybe I'm doing too much ....

Lannis

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

I didn't say potatoes are HARD to grow, I said they are labor & space intensive... and very cheap at the store

[Muley]

certified seed 'taters are certified to be free of disease, to begin with anyway.  doesn't mean they won't catch something when you put 'em in the dirt.

Bees, or lack thereof caused a tremendous loss of productivity in our garden.  Squash went bust, ditto beans.  My brother in NC had same problem. Our honey bees are almost gone.  If the bees disappear, will all life on earth cease to exist?

[Aaron D.]

So, which of the steps that I laid out above do you skip, in growing potatoes?   Maybe I'm doing too much ....

Lannis

I have had success with digging a hole and dropping the whole thing in.
Also dropping them on the ground and throwing soil on them.
Also just missing a potato in the harvest and finding a new plant in spring.

Ruth Stout used to drop them on the ground and kick hay over them. I mean, really, they will grow if you don't eat them fast enough-except these days they get fumigated for supermarkets so they won't easily sprout-though they will eventually.

I bought Andean potatoes at the supermarket and buried those-they all came up and gave us nice weird potatoes!

[donn]

Bees, or lack thereof caused a tremendous loss of productivity in our garden.  Squash went bust, ditto beans.  My brother in NC had same problem. Our honey bees are almost gone.

That's scary.  They're real numerous here - honeybees, bumblebees, sweat bees, and leafcutter bees which are a new one on me.

I think we'll be able to get the bees back, once we clean up our act and lay off the pesticides, but there will be some lean years.