Today, On The Nightshade Files...
.JPG)
Ooh, that sounds rather sinister, I like it! Not that there is anything menacing in this post, well, unless you count me wielding a Pulaski hand tool. I'm sure in some circles that act could be considered terrifying. Muh ha ha ha!
Um, I tried a new variety of coffee this morning, and I am feeling slightly concerned about its effect on me, as I seem to be full of mischief and a pinch of malice this morning. Interesting.
Anyhoo, on to the meat and POTATOES of this post! Sorry, I get excited about potatoes, I mean, I do live in Idaho after all. Ironically, I don't eat tons of starch, but I just love growing me some spuds. And let me tell ya, once you have had a home grown spud, those inferior public potatoes just won't do it for you anymore.
Whenever potatoes cross my mind, I think of two things.
First:
And second: How many row feet of the danged things do I need to grow this year!?
Averaged over the years, it seems like our family tends to go through 150-200 pounds of potatoes over a winter. What? We like homemade French fries. One year we were crazy and grew 1/2 an acre of potatoes, by hand, and dug them all, by hand. Never again. Hilling that many potatoes by hand, twice, while good for my character, wasn't good for my overall well being. The rows, they just kept going.
This year I restrained myself and only planted 120 row feet. I'm trying to only grow what I need, with a large part of that reasoning coming from the fact that there seems to be a huge resurgence in gardening in our country, and that, coupled with a bit of a supply issue in the gardening seed department, means that I am not going to be one of those folks who over procures anything. I want to make sure I don't over buy so there's enough to go around.
A lot of years I have my own seed potatoes, saved from the previous year's crop, but last year's truck breakdown, road trip extravaganza interfered with my normal gardening procedures, so this year I bought seed potatoes from one of my favorite proprietoressess of all time, Mary at Mary's Feed and Farm in Oldtown, Idaho. BEST FEED STORE EVER!
This year I kept it simple and I am only planting two varieties, German Butterball and Yukon Gold. Both are easy to grow, and keep well over winter.
After years of digging out beds by hand, I do a dance of unadulterated joy every time we bust out the rototiller implement for the tractor and do this:
.JPG)
After tilling, I got out my very expensive and very scientific planting tools. A board, an old Pulaski, a rake, and a knife.
.JPG)
Using the board I marked out a semi straight row. I tend to put my potato rows a couple feet apart from each other, and then using the Pulaski I dig out my marked rows down about 6-8 inches in depth.
.JPG)
Next, using my knife, I cut up the seed potatoes, making sure each chunk had a couple of eyes on it. This year's seed potatoes were so big that it looked like I planted them whole. For some reason it made me giggle. Well, that and I am pretty sure that I am more than a little bit mental and a perpetually amused infant.
.JPG)
It was a glorious sunny day when I planted the potatoes a couple of days ago, and I probably freaked the neighbors out a bit as I engaged in a bit of dancing and singing while I conducted my potato planting task. I do so love my Bluetooth speaker. So do my cats. We had a party. It was great.
After all the trenches were dug and the seed potato chunks were seeded at 5-6 inch intervals, I proceeded to use my rake and cover them all up. While dancing, because why should work be stale and robotic.
In a couple months time there will be new potatoes, and I will probably make creamed new potatoes and peas, because my grandma used to make that for me as a kid in late spring, and I am a nostalgic Kat at times.
.JPG)
Another cool nightshade event that happened was that I planted some of my many tomato plants in the greenhouse. My goal this year is to be eating fresh pico de gallo before the end of June made with my very own tomatoes. It has been foretold.
.JPG)
Since I had the greenhouse beds all prepped, it was a sublime pleasure to dig holes, throw in a handful of bone meal, and transplant my little tomato planties into my nicely prepared and healthily composted soil. Since I was feeling a bit fancy, I also sprinkled some ground up egg shells on the soil that I have been saving every time I use some of my eggs in the house. Can we say it together: No blossom end rot for me this year!!!
.JPG)
And that brings us to the end of this Nightshade themed epistle, otherwise known as what Kat has been up to the last forty-eight hours. Okay, to be honest, that was only a modicum of what I actually got done.
Now, on to pine needle burning!!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post, unless otherwise cited, were taken on the author's still rather compost encrusted iPhone.
My cats are lazy! We have quite the assortment of rodents, but the cats rarely catch any. Last year we bought two battery-operated gadgets that did seem to cut down on the visible "tunnels" in the garden...until one of them quit working.
I think I remember JT telling me about the gopher repelling gadgetry last year, and that it actually worked a bit. I had no idea one failed you, lol, just like the cats!
It's cool in a way as your cats must be of the loving kind. My felines are probably like the rest of the animals on the homestead, weird, slightly savage, and prone to displays of violence! Just in the last twenty-four hours there has been a steer dragging of a human, an escaped horsecapade, and I am sure more antics that I have yet to learn of;)
The primary displays of animal violence around here are Annie and Ulysses picking on Clarence.
Bookmarking this to grow my future potatoes !
Awe, thank you! I hope your future potatoes grow like weeds! Potatoes for days!!:)
You don't cut your taters up? Each eye will produce a plant. Your seed potatoes would go 4x or 5x as far. I only ask because that's the way we've always done it. We usually get massive returns on a 50# sack.
I sure do! Each one of those potatoes were cut into at least fourths, they were just massive seed potatoes so they don’t look like they were cut, lol!! I usually go for two eyes a chunk.:)
I can't drink coffee much anymore so I am on gunpowder green tea - British.
You make me super jealous seeing your tractor.
I have tractor envy... 😄
Those "seed" potatoes are huge. The plants are going to be pretty intense with that much to start with. How tall do you let them get before burying again? I haven't been lucky in my attempts so I just plant and let them go, hoping the gophers don't abscond with them.
Ooh, I like tea too. All kinds, although I’m super partial to double bergamot earl grey.
Tractor Envy, lol, that sounds serious! We’ve had our beast for a long time now. One day my husband got mad, drove to town, and a week later John Boy was delivered, lol. Best fit throwing result ever!
Those seed potatoes we’re the largest I’ve ever had, it seriously didn’t look like I cut them, but I did! When they get a foot or so of growth on them I bury them up til only a couple inches of plant is showing. I usually do that twice and I hit them with fish and kelp emulsion right before they bloom. Tend to get pretty good yields that way.
The cats and I have an understanding about those evil potato stealing gophers, lol
I am also trying a new coffee variety. It turns out not only to be "enhanced with the flavors of vanilla, hazelnut, and cinnamon," but to also decaf. So it's broken, and too froufrou for my liking to boot. Time to brew some REAL coffee now! No more random packets of odds and ends.
Is decaf even considered coffee? I only have one cup a day, so it is definitely going to be the full power kind. All of those frou frou flavors do sound nice, but I’m hoping you got some legit rocket fuel at some point:)