Harvesting potatoes
Every family has their cultural staple. We grew up eating potatoes. My mom baked them, added them to her delicious stew and on the occasional Friday we had what the Brits and Canadians refer to as chips, aka French fries. Potatoes were tasty and filling and in my modest culinary repertoire, a fine addition to any meal
Potatoes remain a favorite, even though they’ve fallen from favor as a starch. Brown rice is tasty and so is couscous, but potatoes are my go-to comfort food. I love them.
Still, I didn’t set out to grow them. For me, part of the fun of gardening is watching things grow. I love the wild trail of a pumpkin, the abundant tomatoes, and a myriad of flowers. Potatoes become potatoes under ground.
I tossed a few sorry-looking potatoes into the compost bin and nature took over. Who knew? Apparently they are pretty easy to grow. The industrious Fran at The Road to Serendipity advised me to leave them in place till they flowered. The plants passed the flowering stage and started producing fruit, which, incidentally, is toxic.
I harvested the lot of them on Sunday and gave the harvest to my sister for her soup. She makes a big batch each week, then takes it for lunch. She’s a good cook with a small appetite so this will last her a week.
Small but plentiful
You can buy ‘new potatoes’ at the market, so hopefully the tiny potatoes I sent home are equally tender and tasty. Unlike tomatoes, you can’t take a big bite and know right away if they’re good.
Sharon’s Harvest
Do you have a favorite starch? Is it one you grew up with or something you discovered along the way?
What I say is that if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.
—A. A. Milne, English writer (1882–1956)
Gardening Nirvana 
We are a potato clan through and through as well. Baked, mashed, in a beef stew, a leek soup or a trusty pot pie. Man, now I’m hungry.
LikeLike
Oh yes…I forgot about pot pies. Yes, all this potato talk does make one hungry.
LikeLike
I’m English so I grew up with potatoes at almost every meal, I still love them but now I use a wide variety of starches and often none at all in a meal, vegetables and fruit are enough when you aren’t having to fill up on starch to stretch the meal.
LikeLike
That’s a good point, Christina. My dad was British, so it was definitely a big part of our meals.
Are you a vegetarian as well?
LikeLike
Me too – I love potatoes! I use only organic nowadays though due to the toxic poisons used to make ’em grow bigger and last longer by commercial growers. We need some carbs and starch in our diets and spuds are a good way to go. My favourite comfort food is potatoes mashed with milk kefir and a dash of cayenne pepper and sprinkled with spring onions. Comforting, tasty and good for me 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yum!
LikeLike
You are also a wiz in the kitchen, I see. That sounds yummy. I’m going to see if I can order organic spuds from Baker Heirloom, then try them in a grow bag.
LikeLike
We all grew up on potatoes too. Even now, hubby feels cheated if he doesn’t have a potato dish for tea! 😉
LikeLike
Nice! Are you usually able to oblige?
LikeLike
Oh boy, I love potatoes! I wish we were growing them over here, but we don’t have enough yard space to grow everything we want! I created my own version of a Cheesie Potatoes dish that we love made with layers of cut up potatoes, cheddar cheese, seasonings, and Kelloggs corn flake crumbs. Delish! Thanks Alys, now I am hungry!
LikeLike
Oh my that sounds good. Cheesey and crunchy goodness.
Since crop rotation is good for the soil and the bad pest population, perhaps you can rotate them in next year or the year after?
LikeLike
We used to eat potatoes a lot, but after becoming vegetarian my meals took on a different focus and I now eat lots of pasta! I do still love baked potatoes and chips though! That was nice of you to hand over your whole harvest. Hope your sister enjoys them!
LikeLike
Thanks, Cathy. I like pasta too, but have tried to cut back since I’m perpetually trying to lose 15 pounds these days. It sure gets harder north of 50.
My sister has a lot of fun sensitivities so I haven’t been able to share my berries or tomatoes. I’m glad she can eat the potatoes so it was really fun to pass them on.
LikeLike
I’ve wondered a long time if I could grow my own. Quit buying them because of the pesticides. French Fries are my all time favorite food in the world. They are not all created equal. Had to give up eating them often because of insulin resistance. I still want to try to grow them soon. Yours look so cute.
LikeLike
Thank you, Marlene. I agree, too, that French fries are tasty but only when properly prepared.
Sorry to hear you have an insulin reaction. I know they are quite high on the glycemic index.
LikeLike
The ultimate comfort food!! I tell my patients that it’s all about portion control and moderation. 2 cups? no. 1/2 cup? yes!
LikeLike
Well said, Laurie. Your patients are lucky to have you.
I think I’ll eat a baked potato for lunch today, and I’ll be thinking of you.
LikeLike
I like potatoes but can’t grow them in my soil – will probably try them in a grow bag next year. It’s funny, when we lived in Ireland it was all about potatoes but I also love rice and pasta and am a little sad when I think of the ever shrinking potatoe variety.
LikeLike
I wonder if you could mail-order heirloom potatoes that would grow in your area? I’m also intrigued by the grow bag idea. It sounds practical.
LikeLike
Those little new potatoes are terrific when cleaned, boiled and buttered lightly then add some dill and love fast sour cream just to cover. Karen used to make them that way. They are a kind of a low fat substitute for baked potatoes and you don’t have to turn on the oven on a warm day.
We do like potatoes, my favourite is stringy hash browns. I sometimes make them with veggie burgers and Mr B’s steak. Sometimes too, I’ll cube them with a carrot and onion and microwave with low fat italians dressing and an ice cube (stops them from drying out). Again, nice on a warm day. My favourite starch is bread….all kinds 😀
LikeLike
You sound like a wiz in the kitchen. All sorts of great ideas. Interesting tip adding the ice cube. I wouldn’t have thought of that.
I love hash browns as well. Stacks and Hobee’s are my favorites, but sadly Hobee’s closed in the Pruneyard last year. We don’t make them at home, because I’m the only one that really likes them.
Oh yes…bread. Now there’s a starch. I can tell we’ll be doing plenty of eating on our vacay.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ok, if you insist 😀
I’m honestly not a whiz at all and not everything I make is met with applause, LOL. But I do take the job seriously. I try to have a plan anyways and mix it up a bit. I agreed to be the chief cook when I left work, so it’s part of the gig.
LikeLike
What??? No applause??? Mr. B, I’m calling you in five minutes. You better be ready to defend yourself. 😉
It’s great that you worked all that out ahead of time. Setting expectations early (and often) leads to marital harmony.
LikeLiked by 1 person