What's Coming In Hot: Potatoes!
Planted in April. Harvested in July. These hot, starchy, carb grenades cook in the ground for just a few months to provide storage all winter long. So cool!
All photos and video taken by Chelsea Dimyan
@cdimyanphotography
All Eyes on us…
Potato Party!
It was the first of week of April. We got a ton of potatoes in.
Literally. One whole ton — two thousand pounds of potato seed!
“What the heck is potato seed?’” you ask? Well, it’s a potato that’s sprouting eyes in multiple places. The sprouting eyes are what essentially creates a whole new plant. Many eyes, means many opportunities for growth.
So, the big truck load arrives, and drops 40 huge bags of potatoes on our “farmstep” (you know, “door step”, farm style). And then it’s all eyes on us…
strike ‘em hot
With all eyes on us, we tossed them all on a table, and started chopping. The potato seed with multiple eyes is cut into thirds or fourths, to stretch the amount of seed we’d use. If there was an eye, then there was a plant. And as mentioned, these suckers had eyes-a-plenty! Once cut, they had to be planted right away. They can only hold moisture for so long, and dry out quickly from the cut. Gotta strike while the iron’s hot! Wait, what? Did someone say cast-iron potatoes?
Where are they now?
The babes are growing strong! We’ll hill the beds for all three varieties a few more times before they make their appearance later this summer. We’re looking forward to sharing our crops of Upstate Abundance, Yellow Finn, and Red Pontiac with you this year. First year growing potatoes. And on the new property, no less! An exciting venture. Thanks for following along.
Vibrant potato leaves overflowing in steeply hilled beds.
