The Potato Harvest

We harvested the last of the potatoes at the community garden last night.  A few more hills at the home garden and we will have them all in for the year.  We're looking right on target to exceed our 100lb goal.

 

The purple potatoes (All Blue) are my favorite.  I find their flavor good and their color outstanding. 

 

We grew two varieties of fingerling potatoes (LaRatte and Russian Banana).  I don't think we did a good enough job with our labels to keep them separate.  I think fingerlings are wonderful, especially roasted, but I must say they are a bit of a pain to harvest and clean.  They're so small and there are so many of them!!  But, they're worth it, I think.

 

Then there are the more standard potatoes, like Russets and Yukon Golds, which we like for baking and for making gnocchi.   (We are so making gnocchi this weekend!  Yummy!)

 

There was also a red potato with red flesh (All Red) which we've never grown before.  Its of good size and flavor, but didn't seem as prolific as its All Blue counterpart.

The potatoes found it pretty easy to just grow under the path, which at the community garden are made of carpet.  We opted not to eat the ones grown directly in carpet, but I thought it was pretty interesting.  It was the path of least resistance, I guess!

I think potato harvest is like a treasure hunt.  Its certainly one of my favorite crops to bring in.  My hands did get a bit chilly yesterday though, digging in the cool, damp earth under the grey sky!  But, I am looking forward to all those potatoes and now the job is pretty much done until next year.  Hooray!