Po-Ta-Toes!
I love potatoes! I love planting them, I love growing them, and I for sure love to eat them! I guess it's sorta appropriate that I live in The Potato State eh?
That said, this year I seeded my potatoes about two weeks later than I usually do thanks to a persistent cold snap, and to be honest I might be secretly thankful for said cold snap, because it allowed me to get a TON of other non-garden-y things done.
However, yesterday I was in full potato-goes-in-the-earth mode. My first stop was the school room, a library-game room that we enclosed in our carport for the purpose of a classroom during the years we homeschooled our kids. It has the perfect controlled temperature to store potatoes, so I wandered in and grabbed some milk crates full of seed potatoes on my way out to the garden.
Of course, as I progressed towards the garden I got a bit distracted by some spring color. But come on, who wouldn't get distracted by these gorgeous narcissus and grape hyacinths!
Finally, I made it to potato planting land. Even though I had a philosophy podcast on, there was a certain movie line flitting about in my head, like it does every year when I plant the taters:
as well as the classic response:
Philosophy and Taters, that would probably by my podcast's name 😆
Anyway, back to farming. I had two nice lines laid out for the potato trenches, I seed my potatoes at about six inches of depth. Some years I use a Pulaski to dig the trench, but here lately I have been digging my trenching shovel. It's just so useful and the perfect size to get the depth of trench I want.
Oh, and now might be time for a little seed potato planting disclaimer: When you plant potatoes you can cut them into chunks where each piece has an eye or two and plant them that way. I, however, have a TON of seed potatoes every year, so I don't even bother cutting them, I just plant the whole tuber. The plant draws on the tuber to get established as it starts growing, so the more tuber nutrients to draw off of the better. Just wanted to throw this little FYI out there for the person that yells at me every year about planting the whole potato instead of cutting them up. 😁
Disclaimer aside, after breaking into a big sweat while intermittently listening to a couple of really smart guy's opinions on how we make sense of existence, I finally got the first trench done. Faster than you could say French fry on my thigh, I got the first trench seeded, covered, and tamped down. I used an iron rake to smooth the dirt over the freshly planted taters and tamped it as I went.
Between finishing the first trench and starting the second, I walked over and filled the horse trough and the duck pool. On the homestead, there is always something to do, some chore to tend to. But I like being busy, and to be honest, I enjoyed the small breather from trench digging.
But alas, the trough and pool filled up really fast for some reason, and I was back in trenching action. Not that I was bored or annoyed, for I have a Distraction Cowboy Corgi that is ever present no matter what chore I do, and it's especially amusing to watch Cora try to bite every shovel full of dirt. Goofy creature!
The second trench didn't take all that long, and I quickly got it seeded, covered, and tamped. The thought of freshly roasted Yukon Golds or a ranch potato salad made with the Pontiac Reds brought a massive smile to my face. Homegrown potatoes taste sooo good. There's a buttery, creamy, non-bathed in sprout inhibiting chemical taste about them that I truly fancy.
That and I am a sucker for French fries or plate of freshly made gnocchi.
Is it July yet? LOL!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's size of a respectable tater iPhone. The text divider image was made in Canva.