This morning at breakfast I asked the monkeys “If you could only have 1 fruit or vegetable to eat for the rest of your life what would it be?”
Monkey Boy was quick to answer “Bananas”. The Girl took a little longer with her reply, “An Irish potato from the late 1700’s. {I gave her a blank stare}. She then went on to tell me how the people of Ireland practically lived off potatoes and yada yada yada you know the rest of the story.
Luckily we will be planting more than 1 crop this year. We also have multiple grocery stores nearby in case of a major potato failure.
This year I’m shooting for a 200 lb potato harvest. I actually have no idea how many potatoes my family eats in an average year, but as you may know, the Handsome Husband is Irish, and his people have a thing for tubers. So we will grow potatoes. Lot’s and lot’s of potatoes. First on my planting list was the mighty Yukon Gold potato.
I am taking a risk, as these Yukon Golds came from the grocery store and not a certified seed grower. We did not get a chance to eat them and when the potatoes began to sprout, rather than tossing them out, I decided to plant them. I’ve never had a problem with starting potatoes from the grocery store before so hopefully with a little luck, I’ll have a crop of baby Yukons by the end of summer.
If you have never planted potatoes before, it’s a piece of cake.
Simply dig a trench about 12″ deep, plant your potatoes about 10″ apart and cover with about 4″ of good soil. When the potatoes leaves begin to break through the soil, cover them with a few more inches of dirt. I like to create hills about 12″ high so my potatoes have plenty of room to spread out and grow babies.
Towards the end of summer when the leaves die and turn brown, it will then be time to harvest {I like to save that job for the Handsome Husband}.
Then you can make a nice pot of potato soup and break out the fiddle.
Wahooo! Things are starting to get busy around here! What’s next?
Jules says
I love red potatoes. My dad likes to plant blue ones – but they don’t look so good when they are mashed! I think we’ll also plant fingerlings – not my favorite, but someone likes them.
Heather S. says
I was going to read ‘the rest of the story’, but it says page not found…
Janice says
I just found your blog yesterday. I love it. Just love it.
Janice Satterwhite
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks Janice! 🙂
Nic says
instead of using the whole potato as a seed potato, cut it up into ‘sections’. make sure each section has one good eye on it that is sprouting out. Let the cut pieces sit out for at least a day or two so the cut edge dries out (prevents fungus down the road). Then plant that piece. Don’t use ones that have brittle ‘eyes’ or ‘shoots’. I have grown a plant that gave me about 15 potatoes off of a single eye that had almost no actual potato from the parent on it.