Several weeks ago, we spent an afternoon un-earthing these tasty taters.
Digging up potatoes is usually a pretty fun job. This year, we let the weeds overrun our potato patches. A field of thick weeds makes this job not as much fun.
We use the four-wheeler to pull a plow in order to get the potatoes out of the ground. John handles the plow and I drive the four-wheeler.
Here's a photo from several years ago. This is what the plow set-up looks like. Here Sam is handling the four-wheeler to help Farmer John plow a field for planting potatoes.
It took about three passes over each row before we were able to get through the weeds and down to the taters. Then came the fun part, the search through the soil to find all the potatoes. When Farmer John was a little boy this was his favorite farm job.
This year we planted two gardens with potatoes (approximently 100 pounds of seed potatoes). One patch was all Yukon Gold and the other was a mix of both gold and red.
After all the potatoes were collected, we spread the out in the sun to cure. This helps prevent rotting once they go into storage.
After curing for a few hours, Farmer John packed them for storage. We also harvested our pumpkins that day. Both chores felt like fall activities, even though it was close to 80 degrees that afternoon.
Five milk crates full of potatoes, plus all those pumpkins are now in the cellar. We'll share them with friends and family and cook them up on cold nights. How's that for homeland security?
Love this post. And love those taters! Farmhand Dad cooked and mashed a huge batch last night. Deeeeeeelish! Thanks for sharing your WV bounty with the IL urbanites. We have often thought of homeland security and the JBB Farm. May we please have the first place on your farm if it comes to that?
ReplyDeleteJohn used to love this part because he got to ride the tractor with Pap! This was a family time. We'd all pack onto the wagon and up the hill we'd go - if they were planted above the pines. It was like magic to see them come out behind the big spade plow and the soil was so soft, we went barefoot. It was amazing to find faces in the taters and we understood why they made the originial Mr. Potato Head - we all got them for Christmas one year. That farm has had our hands black with dirt, scraped from trees, in love and having our first kiss. It's so wonderful to read this blog. It is the only blog I read.
ReplyDeleteSusi- I'm glad you like the blog. Based on all your memories and lovely writing, I think you should be blogging too.
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