Hi all,

I am REALLY starting to love my homegrown potatoes, and cant even imagine a year without them anymoreÂkinda like tomatoes!

This year I planted my first crop the beginning of April. As many of you know, planting a crop of potatoes for me means to clean all the half digested compost out of my potato garden (built with a couple pieces of 2 x 12), lay all the growing potatoes I have in my cabinet in the bottom, and then refill it with the half done compost. On August 6, after the foliage had almost completely died down I dug up my first crop and got a little over 4 poundsÂranging from a quarter inch to a few inches in diameter (thatÂs a 10" plate theyÂre on).

A few days later I planted my second crop! I usually mostly buy red potatoesÂthink they have more flavorÂand donÂt often bake potatoes anywayÂbut this time I had both some red and some white potatoes. What happened next was REALLY interesting! The white potatoes were planted on the left, and they started growing foliage immediatelyÂlike the reds have always done in past plantings. But this time the reds never grew any foliage at all! Still wonder what was up with that!

The end of September they were lookin goodÂat least the white ones were! The reds were still zilch!

I donÂt remember exactly when it was, but when I was on a trip one time in early October the temp went down to 19 one nite! So much for veggie gardening! The second crop had only been in the ground for about 6 weeks by then, and I really wasnÂt expecting much! IÂve found potatoes I had thrown out growing in the compost pile even in winter, so I debated if it would accomplish anything to leave them in the ground a while longer, but by October 20 I was so curious to see if I had gotten anything that I couldnÂt wait anymore and I dug them up! (TheyÂre on a 8½" plate this time!)

I got a little over 2 pounds this timeÂin just 6 weeks! And as you can see, I even got a few red onesÂwhich never got ANY foliage at all! The miracle of the potatoes!

When I dug up the second crop there were "roots" that seemed to have tinytinytiny starting potatoes on them, so I reburied them and now IÂm gonna wait till spring to see if I have a second miracle! Never expected the first one, so why not a second one!

In spring, potatoes are going to be the first thing to go in next year! IÂm thinking in March some time. They definitely seem to be able to take the coldÂas long as they havenÂt developed foliage yet, and IÂm gonna take a chance that even if they have foliage and it freezes, theyÂll recover pretty well. What I really want to do is to get THREE crops in next year!

Every single one of the ones IÂve grown so far IÂve eaten by just scrubbing them off, boiling them till tender, and putting a little butter and salt on them. They are SO good I donÂt want to do anything else that will alter the flavor!

Anybody else have a potato storyÂor a second harvest story?

Potato girl,

Skybird