Prepping & Planting Potatoes!

It's aaaaalmost time to set these spuds in the ground and let them work their magic. I love love love freshly dug taters for dinner! These will keep us eating good from July through to about March! 

My Potato Plans

We will be planting 40 lbs of seed potatoes, or 150' of potatoes. I have 5 lbs of Natascha (new to me, my fav is Mountain Rose, but it was out of stock), as our early variety, which we will dig and eat fresh during the summer. As our mid-season variety we have Kennebec, a standard for us, which we will dig and eat fresh during the fall; at some point digging the rest to cure for storage. Lastly we have Green Mountain, an heirloom storage variety I just love; it does well on our site (clay-loam) and stores great. We'll plant 20lbs of Green Mountain to dig and cure in the Fall, for our winter storage potatoes and for our Winter CSA customers. 

I plant the early varieties at 8" and the late variety at 10", nestled in the bottom of a 6-8" trench. After planting cover with a couple inches of soil, filling the rest of the trench in later, as the plants grow. It's nice to mulch potatoes, if you are able, as they are water hogs and love the extra moisture. While most veggies in the garden like 1" per week, potatoes like 2".

After 17 days waking up/sprouting.

Greensprouting/Chitting Potatoes

The potatoes pictured are just over halfway through the Chitting process - I chit you not this works great. ;) When our potatoes arrived just over 2 weeks ago we began to "wake them up" by bringing them into the basement (60-65°) and keeping them in complete darkness. During this time they start to put out little white sprouts (like taters that sit in your pantry too long).

After 2 weeks they were moved to the spare bedroom to sturdy up for planting. Left open, as pictured, in a space with indirect light, these shoots will begin to green up and get tougher. This get them ready for planting, sturdying up so they are less likely to break off when being handled.

Click on over to our Facebook page, check out the videos section. I have two videos from when the seed potatoes arrived from The Maine Potato Lady, and from their transition to light. I'll post another at planting time.

As you can see in the pics some sprouts are longer than others. You don't want them to get too long, but each variety may act a little different and, of course, it will depend on the temps in your house as well. If you have longer sprouts you just need to be careful when planting.

Nice sturdy little shoots.

Planting Time

After about 4 weeks in the house these guys will be itching to get in the ground (like all of us itching to get our hands in the dirt!). So, in about two weeks, when the sprouts are nice and sturdy and ground temp is around a nice 60° (no need to rush folks) we will plant them out. A good phenological sign is when the dandelions are blooming (not the ones on the South side of the house).

Do you have to greensprout them? No, certainly not, but it has worked well for me. It gives the potatoes a head start in the garden and potentially can create higher yields. I like that, as with our heavier soil, which can somewhat restrict set growth, it's nice to have an advantage.

Well that's potatoes for tonight! I'm trying to post more on facebook, and a bit here, about what we're planting, how were growing and cooking, so follow along on facebook and if there is anything you are wondering about please holler!!

From the Pantry :: March

Fall storage items we are still eating from the pantry:

Winter squash (some are getting wrinkly)
Potatoes (beginning to look a little alien)
Garlic & shallots
Red & yellow onions
Sweet potatoes (bought from another farm)

Summer produce items we are still eating from the freezer:

Greens
Broccoli
Shredded zucchini
Peppers
Peas
Various fruit - rhubarb, strawberries
Other items below these, yet to be discovered...

Side Track!

Redefine what you think of as eating seasonally! YOU define the season, if you start preserving for year-round/extended consumption. Part of this may also include redefining what you think these items may look like - octopus sprouting potatoes, wrinkly spuds and squash. YuM.

It's Pantry and Freezer Clean Up Time

With spring and farming season just around the corner we have been putting priority to cleaning up our pantry and freezer. Focusing on prepping items for our busier times. This is the first time we have been so successful at this, during this time of year and it feels great. 

Potatoes: Our storage potatoes may indeed last us until the summer's new potatoes come in! With our potato stock we have been making twice baked potatoes with the larger, better looking tubers. Along with these we also continue to freeze portions of mashed potatoes.

 Twice bakers and mashers headed to the freezer. This is one way to redefine how we eat seasonally.

Winter Squash: We have butternut and acorn squash in the pantry and because of the wet WET fall they are not storing as well as normal. We have been roasting and freezing portions of puree and I still aim to can some (cubed) before we are done. P.S. Another reason I have really been enjoying this is because I have been adding squash to the dog's food and they love it (well Odin loves it, Hazel tolerates it).

Chicken: We put fifteen stew hens in the freezer in November and we have slowly been putting up shredded chicken and stock/bone broth. The chicken, veggies and herbs sit in the crock for a day, before shredding and canning. Then, the bones, skin, etc. goes back in for another day to make bone broth for cooking and using as a healthful drink (which I also put in the dog's food sometimes). I'll add apple cider vinegar to help extract beneficial minerals from the bones and sometimes I toss in a beef marrow bone to increase the benefits. After it's done I strain the broth and pressure can it (then sort out the 48-hr cooked veggies/skin, etc. to throw in the dog food). ;)

Organs: We always get back our pig organs when we harvest and since we aren't super good at eating them they have sort of piled up in the freezer. While one of us likes liver, the other doesn't, so we have resolved to dehydrating these items (if they don't get put into sausage) for dog treats. This is proving a great way to clean up the recesses of the freezer.

Still on the List

Lard: crank out a bunch of rendered lard. (Try making some soap?!?)

Garlic/shallots: freeze some olive oil/garlic balls; ferment some for holistic farm management.

Zucchini: I always freeze too much! I should crank out some breads to stick back in the freezer.

Freezer excavations: what is hiding at the bottom of the freezer? (Usually way too many frozen peppers.)

Lard, beautiful lard!

What's Missing?

It's a great time of year to check in and see what you are missing - what do you need to preserve more of next season? For us, celery. Darn it! Every year we run out. Okay, I'm going for an ice cream bucket full this year! Also, we need a new salsa to put away, one type is not enough. It would also be nice to have some canned beans.

What's on your list?

Resources & Other Interesting Things...

Why is organic food so *#@! expensive?? | Ali Partovi | TEDxManhattan

Bone Broth, Broths an Stock

8 Bits of Plastic You Can Quit Right Now

Hold the potatoes!

Tater Time?

Around here folks seem to get really excited about planting potatoes around Easter weekend, but hold your potatoes! It's a bit too early.

Monday brought the delivery of our seed potatoes - I was excited to get them, so we could wake them up and prepare them for planting May 1st.

While the soil is much more workable at this time than the last couple of springs, planting potatoes is more about a suitable environment beneath the soil than just being able to get your tools in the ground.

Soil temp April 7th, Madelia, MN.

Potatoes like to be planted when the soil is 55-60°. The Tuesday soil temp was a chilly 41°, a different field location Monday read 46°.

Two ways to know when to plant your 'taters:

• Use a handy-dandy thermometer, like the one above, and watch for temps to reach 55-60°.

• Use phenology - plant when the first dandelions bloom.

Cool soil, especially cool moist soil, increases the risk of your tubers rotting in the ground. They need a little time to break dormancy, before they begin sprouting, during this time they are more susceptible to rot.

Can't Wait?

If you can't keep your hands off your 'taters and you, like most gardeners, are itching to do garden workm then get your seed potatoes and work on "chitting" (or "greensprouting") them. Chitting potatoes can take 10-14 days off growing time in the field and perhaps increase yield.

We received our potatoes and then promptly stored them in a slightly warmer location to let them "wake up" or break dormancy, and eventually grow little green sprouts.

We are planting six varieties this year, with two new (Mountain Rose and Kennebec) and one new-old variety (Green Mountain), in addition to our current standards - German Butterball, Nicola and Sangre. One-hundred-twenty pounds of seed potatoes.

 Resources

Jumpstarting Spring: How to Greensprout Potatoes (High Mowing Seeds)

Simply search for 'chitting potatoes' directions differ slightly from source to source

Growing Potatoes Successfully (The Maine Potato Lady, our seed source)
7 Ways to Grow Potatoes (Rodale's Organic Life)

Photo Update 5.6.13

Woot! So much planting. So many veggies put in the ground. It's great to finally have the farming season started and off to a good pace. Now the field holds rhubarb, asparagus, onions, shallots, potatoes, beets, kohlrabi, lettuce, spinach and peas! The broccoli, cabbage and celery is sitting on the sidelines to be planted tomorrow.

Dark Red Nordlund ready for planting.

The potatoes had had quite the adventure this year. The Friday they were supposed to be delivered we had that snowstorm, so they spent the weekend in the post office. Then they were held up in the basement as we waited to get in the field, so we inadvertently "chitted" them this year! Storing them in a warmer location, in the dark allowed them to wake up, so to speak, and they began sprouting. We were very happy to get them in the ground--finally.

John filling the first trench.

Trenches are dug for potatoes, about 6 inches deep. This year we placed a little straw in the bottoms of the trenches, then the seed potatoes, then just cover them with soil. Now the 80 pounds of potatoes are planted, and the dreaded trenching--300 feet this year--is complete!

Pigs loving the spring grass!

The pigs pen was expanded again. They do not hesitate to (literally) dig into that new grass! Actually, they look around and dig the dandelions first. Next we will move the entire pen to a new area.

Lilac ready to leaf out, and mason bee houses.

 The mason bee houses are hung up and ready to welcome our little friends. I can't wait for that lilac to begin blooming--ahhh the smells of spring!

Brooke seeding beets.

This year we purchased a direct seeder. Boy it makes quick work of planting a row!! We planted beets and kohlrabi with it yesterday and it worked like a charm. Very excited to have that this year--thank you members for helping us make these needed investments!