Approximately ten days ago, we dug our potatoes from the garden, rubbing off as much dirt as we easily could, spread them out on racks, covered everything with burlap bags and let they dry out and cure.
Two days ago we sorted them, putting ones with gouges, dings and an insect hole or two in a container to be used first.
The rest were put into crates and stored in our root cellar. The temperature down there isn't quite cold enough for ideal storage yet, but we're hoping it soon will be.
We knew we had a larger than normal crop and were curious to know how many pounds we harvested so we weighed each pail full on our old bathroom scale subtracting the pound for the metal bucket.
We ended up with 15-3/4 buckets full which translated into 235 pounds of spuds! Quite a bit more than we will eat this winter, so we'll have plenty to share.
Both varieties, Red Norland (reds) and Carolas (whites), produced very large potatoes. We couldn't be more pleased. We are rich in potatoes!
I'll end with a quote which tickled my funny bone and is attributed to Hank Green when speaking about gardening, planting and harvesting his potatoes.
"It was like putting a bottle cap
in the ground and pulling out a coke."
If you've ever planted potatoes, I think you'll understand the analogy!
16 comments:
Not a bad thing at all to be rich in! My dietitian mom has pointed out more than once that one can live on potatoes, as they have protein, vitamin C and others, starch and fiber (of course, you need to eat those tasty skins, my favorite part of a slow-baked potato!).
Michelle - Long, long ago my grandmother immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland with her family. She often talked about the hard years before they left their homeland and living on nothing but potatoes in the winter time. So, yes, one can survive on potatoes alone. But aren't we fortunate we don't have to?!
Yes, but I'm also glad that we don't have to survive WITHOUT potatoes! 😉
A good crop. I envy you your root cellar and larder. Modern houses have a lot missing!!
Michelle - Spoken as a true potato lover!!
gz - Root cellars, pantries, basements with cool storage, summer kitchens, wood cooking and heating stoves, gardens, orchards, berry patches, striving for self-sufficiency, and on and on. Many of the younger generations have deemed these things unnecessary and too much work. We're all entitled to our own choices and ways of thinking, but I'm glad we still do have that choice. :o)
That's a lotta potatoes! I wish they stored better for me like the sweet potatoes do. My husband has talked many times of building a root cellar but it would take some serious drainage engineering on our property. My mother had one in a new build house and of course the grandparents had them. I remember well the smell of a root cellar full of apples.
That is a gorgeous haul! We have been eating ours, and believe me, there is NOTHING you can buy that compares to the taste of your own, garden grown spuds. I save the cooking water and use it to make bread. I swear the dough has extra life and vigor with that addition. The bread has been extra good of late!
SmartAlex - It does take a particular piece of land to build a root cellar on. And if you're in a wet area, I imagine it's impossible. Dug into a hill is the best. We dug ours under my pantry but that's not ideal either. Even though the pantry is unheated, the root cellar doesn't cool down in the fall as quickly as we would like it to. :o(
Rosalea - Even though my husband has always been prejudiced against "white" potatoes (says they're too dry), he's been impressed with the ones we've grown this year. I keep the skins on and like the looks of (especially) the red skins in soup or other potato dishes. Great reminder for me to save and use the potato water for bread baking. My dough can always use extra life and vigor!!
Mama Pea, Digging potatoes is so much fun, kinda like a treasure hunt. I have shared the fun with many, otherwise disinterested but potential gardeners. And afterwards, many started wanting to grow their own! BTW, your spuds look awesome and I love the analogy you shared. We grew just a short row of Kennebecs, Eva and Superior potatoes and still ended up with almost 74 pounds. That's a lot of coke bottles!-M
Anonymous M - A treasure hunt it is! You never know what each forkful is going to turn up. "Sharing" the fun with others is a great idea to get the job done fast and with less backache on the original gardeners. I may have to implement that idea! ;o)
Hooooray! for your spud crop. Mine was short this year due to draught. I've been fed by those 'bottle caps' all summer long though, and will be probably until Feb this year. Coke all around!
My root cellar project is coming along, too. I do have a cold room in the basement of my house, but a true root cellar is a special thing to have. Our home in Wisconsin had an extra deep 'wine cellar' dug down below the level of the basement floor. It also had a 'dumb waiter' that could be used to lift butter/wine/whatever up to the kitchen level. It was neat, but not practical as somebody had to go all the way down and load the thing, then go back upstairs to haul up the loot. Cheers!
Tim - Knowing we have more than ample supply of potatoes this year, I've been using them A LOT already . . . which makes my husband very happy. Potato Pancakes tonight for dinner which is a favorite of both of us. The house I grew up in had a "cold room" in the basement, too, but the only thing ever kept in there was the grape jelly my mom made every year! Interesting to hear of the dumb waiter you had in your Wisconsin house. Even though it involved running up and down the stairs, it would have come in handy if no refrigeration was available!
Our Wisconsin house was very old. We bought it from an old lady who told us about her husband's grandparents who had lived in it. Apparently, they kept the milk/butter, etc. in the dumb waiter cabinet and simply raised it to access the food, then lowered it to the cool room below when they were finished. There was no way to raise the cabinet from below. So, you had to go down - way down - and fill it, then go back up to raise it. Old houses are interesting. I've always lived in one.
Tim - Ah, yes. Old houses. The first house we bought in Illinois (way back when) was originally a stage coach stop (can you believe it?) built in the 1800s. The 80 year old lady we bought it from said when she and her husband bought it in the 1940s all the lower floor windows were broken and vines were crawling in through the openings. Needless to say, they did some remodeling and then we, too, did when we owned it. We found newspapers used for insulation in the walls dated from the 1890s. The stories that house would have been able to tell!
That is a great saying about growing potatoes. Congrats on your bountiful harvest! They have me on a partly liquid diet so for 4 months I've been living on homemade potato soup that I puree....no spices except salt. I haven't tired of it yet....could it be because I'm Irish and eating potatoes is in my DNA? LOL!
Sam - I can think of lots of other things that would be worse to live on than potatoes! Too bad you can't prepare them in some other ways though. You really can do so much with the potato, can't you? I've been thinking of making a pot of potato soup . . . but I won't puree it. Understand why you have to though. Keep up the good work so you can stay feeling good!
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