POTATOES!
I've always kept up a garden. Even when I lived in graduate housing I had an assortment of potted plants. I built a table on which to grow salad. I grew peppers and herbs in pots.
A year and a half ago I moved into a house where I had total freedom to rip up the back yard and plant whatever I liked. There's something to be grown year round in California. I haven't yet mastered my timing to the point where I've been able to harvest something ever month. I'm working on it though.
This fall I planted potatoes. They didn't look all that great. They sort of grew out rather than becoming bushy, got attacked by some little critters that would eat their leaves and then finally wilted over and looked pretty much dead. Murphey's Law: What can go wrong will go wrong. Luca's law: If anything goes wrong, you don't get potatoes.
I pulled them out this weekend and started digging just for kicks. I dug more aggressively at first than I would have if I were expecting to find anything. The skins haven't hardened yet when they're in the ground and you don't want to damage them. As soon as I plunged my hand into the earth I felt a huge round tuber! I had grossly misinterpreted the wilting of the plants. They didn't wilt and die prematurely, they had just finished their cycle!
I grew red skinned potatoes and blue potatoes. The blue potatoes are truly blue, inside and out. They have a gorgeous cross-section when you cut them in half. Potatoes are not uniform in cross-section as your standard mealy potato would have you believe.
The yield wasnt great. I probably planted two pounds of potatoes and harvested four. But the satisfaction of digging for an unexpected treasure and finding it pretty much made my weekend.
I've always kept up a garden. Even when I lived in graduate housing I had an assortment of potted plants. I built a table on which to grow salad. I grew peppers and herbs in pots.
A year and a half ago I moved into a house where I had total freedom to rip up the back yard and plant whatever I liked. There's something to be grown year round in California. I haven't yet mastered my timing to the point where I've been able to harvest something ever month. I'm working on it though.
This fall I planted potatoes. They didn't look all that great. They sort of grew out rather than becoming bushy, got attacked by some little critters that would eat their leaves and then finally wilted over and looked pretty much dead. Murphey's Law: What can go wrong will go wrong. Luca's law: If anything goes wrong, you don't get potatoes.
I pulled them out this weekend and started digging just for kicks. I dug more aggressively at first than I would have if I were expecting to find anything. The skins haven't hardened yet when they're in the ground and you don't want to damage them. As soon as I plunged my hand into the earth I felt a huge round tuber! I had grossly misinterpreted the wilting of the plants. They didn't wilt and die prematurely, they had just finished their cycle!
I grew red skinned potatoes and blue potatoes. The blue potatoes are truly blue, inside and out. They have a gorgeous cross-section when you cut them in half. Potatoes are not uniform in cross-section as your standard mealy potato would have you believe.
The yield wasnt great. I probably planted two pounds of potatoes and harvested four. But the satisfaction of digging for an unexpected treasure and finding it pretty much made my weekend.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
figmentation:
oh silly. I don't remember what the duh was for. maybe the annoucement that you're neat or something... anyways. good find on the 'taters. 
I've never seen a blue potato before.
I've never seen a blue potato before. 
nanny:
Little new borns