Dug up 40 lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes, to see how they were doing, and for this week’s harvest shares. Not a bad haul for 50′, planted late, at the end of June, but they still have some growing to do. We’re harvesting spuds in our usual labor-intensive way, with a digging fork, then scrabbling around by hand. Slow but fun. One drawback: with newer potatoes, scraping, prying fingers can tear up those delicate skins. Here, we did pretty well.
Scraping, prying fingers will always be better than any mechanical means. I have regularly harvested potatoes as part of a community school’s garden curriculum and children absolutely love it, it is the ultimate treasure hunt. Most children love potato soup, at our community school, potato and leek soup is a regular.
I’m so happy you’re posting regularly again! Stuck in the city, these little glimpses of the real life are so cheering.
Also? Potato fruit will haunt my dreams.
What Hayes said above is exactly how I feel about collecting potatoes…the ultimate treasure hunt. Well worth the always dirty, sometimes scraped fingers.
YUM!