Buried Treasure: The Potato Harvest

Phew. I’m glad to be back home, Internet Friends. You might not believe me, but these scraggly little potato vines were a sight for sore eyes upon my return.

 

Why would something so ugly make me so happy? Because they meant that our potatoes were fully cooked and ready to be harvested.  So, I set about ripping up the dead vines and was left with a pretty sorry looking patch of dirt in which to look for buried treasure.

 

To get in and root around, I didn’t want to use a shovel because I worried about cutting the potatoes, but I needed some kind of implement to help me break up the dirt a bit, so I settled on this guy that my mother in law gave me. It’s probably my favorite tool for just about everything: digging, weeding, pretending like I’m Captain Hook. It fits the bill nearly all of the time:

I found a few quick spuds right out of the gate, so I was hopeful:

 

After about 20 minutes of carefully upturning the soil and poking around, I ended up with this:

 

About 4 pounds of a mix of small Russets and fingerlings ranging from gumball size to 6 inches long and 2 inches in diameter, which may not sound like much (and, OK, isn’t), but it’s worlds better than last year’s haul. Considering I crowded them a bit and only started with about 7 seed potatoes (or was it 9? I can’t remember. Anyway …), I’m OK with it.

Moreover, they are perfect potatoes – no wormholes, no mold, not spots. Just truly lovely potatoes.

Similar to last year, we simply roasted the first batch with good olive oil, salt and pepper. I don’t think I will ever get over how creamy fresh potatoes are. We still have about 3 pounds left, so we’ll roast some more tonight because they’re just so good, and we’ll let the rest cure by drying out somewhere dark and cool. Don’t wash harvested potatoes until you’re ready to eat them.

A few potato pointers I learned from this round for next year’s batch:

1. Forget the peppers and plant more potatoes next year. We love the potatoes, and I’m not going to feel bad about allocating half of my garden space to them because they’re so delicious! I want to try an early variety and a later-in-the-season variety.

2. When harvesting, don’t rip out the dead vines. The dead vines are like a road map to where your potatoes will be, so I probably could have saved myself a lot of rooting around if I’d just followed the stems to the spuds. Derp.

3. Do not be a-feared: Planting grocery store potatoes works just fine.  People will stutter and say, “Bu .. bu … bu … you can’t do that! Grocery store potatoes are sprayed with growth inhibitors! And … you can’t do that!”

Oh, yes you can. Yep, it’s true that most are sprayed with growth inhibitors, but if you encounter potatoes that are already growing eyes, the growth inhibitors ain’t working. If a potato has eyes, that’s all you need. If it’s sprouted, you’re solid. The hard part’s done. So, if you’re in or around zone 6a like me, during the next few months, if you see discount potatoes in your grocer’s produce section that have sprouted eyes, just take them home, put them somewhere dark to hang out for a few months, and you’ll have “seed” potatoes to plant in the spring.

4. Planting late is OK, but earlier is probably better.  I got a late start this year, and it all worked out just fine. But do I suspect I might have gotten a better yield with an earlier start? Indeed, I do.  I’ll test that hypothesis next year.

5. Fertilize more. I wasn’t exactly a slouch with the fertilizer, but I probably could have hit these babies with a fish emulsion a time or two more.

6. Inter-plant potatoes with marigolds. I think I had zero pest issues because I had some little marigolds mixed in with my potatoes. Even if that’s not the reason, it certainly can’t hurt!

Don’t be intimidated by potatoes. Dig a hole, stick them in, and cover with dirt, same as all the other veggies, with just some very slight twists.