New Potatoes

This year, I decided to grow potatoes for the first time in over thirty years. The first time I planted potatoes, I simply took some potatoes from our kitchen drawer that had eyes that were starting to grow. I cut them into smaller pieces, and planed with the eyes facing upwards. This system seemed to work fine, successfully producing a healthy batch of potatoes.

Dark Red Norland Organic Potatoes

This year, though, the boxes of seed potatoes at Agway were so attractive that I decided to purchase a couple. Unfortunately, this was in early May and I didn't realize until I got home that I needed to wait until after the last danger of frost date to plant. So they stayed in the boxes in the basement until the end of May. When I opened the boxes, all of the potatoes had at least six inch long sprouts. Some of the potatoes were soft and moldy and had to be tossed. So much for setting them on a warm windowsill one week before planting to induce sprouting! I cut up the potatoes that seemed viable, but I was doubtful that they would amount to anything. I dug trenches about a foot deep and tossed the pieces in with the sprouts slightly above ground. Eventually, they did grow leaves. Although I never saw a single potato beetles, the plants never looked healthy.

Brown spots and holes plagued these potato plants all summer

I continued to fill the holes throughout the summer with compost and soil and tried to remain optimistic. Then a few days ago, when I checked on the garden, two of the plants appeared to have disappeared. They either shriveled up and died or some animal ate them. I decided it couldn't hurt to see what was underneath, so I carefully used a spading fork to loosen the soil and then reached with under the soil with my hands. Nothing, as I searched underneath the first plant. But, the second plant produced the handsome spuds in the picture above. Last night we boiled them with some turnips and served them with a little salt, butter and thyme. They were a real treat, and I can't wait to see what's under the remaining plants!