This year I decided to attempt a potato growing experiment - I read a blog post somewhere about growing potato plants in 5 gallon pails - and thought "I could do that!"
I spoke with my Mum that night and she ended up doing some research herself and found information and a really neat YouTube Video done in Scotland, about growing potatoes in bags - both cloth grow-bags and brown paper bags. Mum had some left-over weed-suppressant cloth and sewed up a half dozen bags - a couple for me, a couple for my sister-in-law and a couple for herself. Mum's grow-bag post can be seen here.
Being the oddity that I am, I decided that I needed to plant food with colour - and so along with the purple haze carrots I planted this year (not yet ready to pick) I also ordered a small box of Russian Blue seed potatoes from West Coast Seeds... They were pretty easy to plant and grow - I have to admit. Potatoes are pretty much a plant and ignore crop (they do need water) and I am GREAT with plant and ignore crops! I planted 5 in each bag and, aside from adding soil every time they got tall enough, I pretty much watered and ignored them until today...
 |
| The potato bags are in the middle at the back... |
 |
| Happy Potato Plants |
 |
| The flowers are actually a purple colour! |
Tonight I decided it was time to break up a grow bag and see what I had, well, growing. I started by digging my hand into one of the bags to see if I could root around and find some new potatoes to snag and cook... No luck. I had saved an old shower curtain and went & pulled it out of the shed. I dragged/rolled one of the bags onto the shower curtain, broke the soil apart a little and dumped the contents onto the old shower curtain.
 |
| Post Potato Hunt! |
I think planting 5 per bag was too many and will, next time, plant three per container. I think that planting too many per bag meant less crop potential, but I still managed to get some potatoes out.
 |
| A Small Haul |
Once I had dumped the shower curtain contents into my compost pile - which, in retrospect, was probably not the smartest thing I could have done (I could very easily incorporated that soil into another container and planted, yes more, potatoes... Ah well - there is still another bag to harvest) I took my haul into the kitchen, washed the dirt off of them, chopped 'em up and stuck them into a pot to steam.
 |
| Ooh - PRETTY! - I wonder how it will taste though?? |
 |
| All chopped up and ready to steam... |
 |
| Steamed, they lose some of the vibrancy of the blue, but still have a lovely lilac colour to them! |
While I was washing them I found one that looked markedly different from the others - one of them was smaller, darker, and had eyes that were looking to start sprouting. I talked to my Mum and decided to hold that one back and see if I could chit it (that is the technical term for letting a potato sprout on purpose so you can plant it. the ones that sprout while in the fridge are just an accident ha ha ha!) and if I can, I'm going to plant it and grow more potatoes! These ones are absolutely delicious and worth a do-over!
 |
| The one on the left is what I think should be the seed potato and the one on the right went into the pot! |
I had some with dinner (the verdict is that they are tasty and I will absolutely grow them again!) and set some aside to make a colourful potato salad with. So far I have steamed yams and Russian Blue potatoes. I'll get some butter potatoes and will also include some chopped garlic scapes for some zing.
That reminds me, my garlic scapes are ready to harvest - Garlic Scape Pesto, here I come!!!
With love across the waters...
No comments:
Post a Comment