Growing Potatoes

Potatoes seem to be among the most popular vegetables and are absolutely my Husband's favorite. If I ask him what he wants for dinner, it almost always includes potatoes. Because my hubby is diabetic, he can’t have a whole lot of potatoes, but, at least for him, some types of potatoes don’t mess up his blood sugar levels as much as some others. Those types that seem to be better include varieties of red and/or gold … russet types tend to spike his sugar more.

Potatoes are pretty good purchased from the store, but a few years ago I decided to start growing some for myself. Those potato varieties were 'Yukon Gold', 'Pontiac Red', 'Kennebec' (a type of russet), and 'All Blue', which are pictured above. The results were awesome! There is a huge difference between those fresh dug potatoes from my own garden and those purchased from the grocery store, even after they have been stored for a while. The homegrown versions tend to be firmer, not bruised, and certainly sweeter and more flavorful. The results were so good that I have been  repeating the process each year. This year I chose only two varieties instead of four – German Butterball and Sangre Red.

I ordered my seed potatoes from Territorialseed.com several weeks ago. I had a choice of having them shipped to me in April, or as soon as they became available. I chose when they became available – they arrived in the mail a couple days ago.

When preparing to plant the seed potatoes, I cut the larger ones in half, making sure there were a couple of "eyes" on each piece, and then put them in a plastic bag with some agricultural sulfur. According to "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" by Edward C. Smith, the sulfur helps prevent fungal diseases and wards off potato beetles. I left the bag of potatoes in a cool dark place for a couple of days.

To prepare the ground, I loosened the soil in one of my raised-beds (about a 4-by-8-foot area) and added a couple of large buckets of compost and mixed it in.

I just I planted them this morning. I dug seven trenches across the four-foot width of the plot and about eight inches deep – four trenches for the German Buttterballs and three trenches for the Sangres. In these trenches I sprinkled a little more of the sulfur along with some organic bone meal. Along the bottoms of the trenches, I placed the seed potatoes every eight to 10 inches and covered them with about three inches of the dug out soil mix. When the emerging potato plants reach a height of three to four inches, I will put in more of the soil mix and repeat the process until the soil pile is gone. Once the last of the soil is added, I will add a layer of straw. Potatoes are sensitive to changes in soil moisture; the straw helps to regulate the soil moisture and temperature. The soil around the potatoes needs to stay moist, but not soggy, so irrigate accordingly.

Last year's red potatoes about six weeks after planting.

After about three months or so, the Sangre potato plants (an early variety) should start looking yellowed and begin to die back - don't' worry, this is supposed to happen. At this time, I will harvest my crop, being careful not to damage the potatoes. First, remove the straw covering and then start to dig into the soil where there should be many pounds of fresh potatoes, usually a nice mix of small new potatoes and larger baking-size potatoes. I will repeat the same process a couple of months later for the German Butterballs, which are a late variety.

Once the potatoes are harvested, they should be laid on a table in the shade and let them dry for a day. The next day, brush off the dried soil and place the potatoes in a crate and store them in a cool, dry, dark cabinet. Washing the potatoes should be done just prior to cooking them and not prior to storage. A few of the small potatoes can be saved to repeat the above processes around the first part of August to get a fall crop, too.

One of our favorite ways to enjoy potatoes is in a delicious potato salad. Here is my recipe - an altered version of the one found on the Best Foods mayonnaise jar:

Micki's Potato Salad

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tbsp. vinegar

1 1/2 tsp. celery salt

1 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. black pepper

2 lbs. potatoes (cooked and cubed)

1 cup thinly sliced celery

1/2 cup sliced green onions

4 hard-boiled eggs (sliced)

1/4 cup chopped dill pickles

1/4 cup crumbled bacon (optional)

In a large bowl, blend the first five ingredients; stir in remaining ingredients; cover and chill. Makes eight servings.

For a festive potato salad, use different colors of potatoes such as red, white and blue to go with those Memorial Day, Independence Day or Labor Day barbecues and picnics.