Showing posts with label Norland Red. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norland Red. Show all posts

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Harvesting Potatoes

So it came time to harvest our potatoes.  The vines had started to die back a bit before we left for vacation but when we got back a week later the vines had all died out.  The picture below shows a mess of dead potato vines against a background of lemon balm. 
Dead potato vines
You may remember those same vines looking so healthy and happy here and here.  It is almost sad to see plants in the garden end their life cycle.  Almost.  But in this case, the dead vines mean yummy potatoes!  I cannot say how long for sure, but the vines had completely died back at least a full week before we began to dig up the tubers.  Which is a good thing.  It gives the potatoes time to develop a thicker skin which will help them store longer.
In order to dig up potatoes without damaging them it is helpful to have a big six tonged garden fork. The one pictured below is for hay but works great to get down below the potatoes and pop them out without stabbing them.
Our potato, compost, hay, et. al. fork
We planted 5 pounds of Yukon Gold and 5 pounds of Norland Red.  Our 10 pound planting resulted in a 100 pound return, pretty much 50 pounds of each (ok there were 3.2 pounds more of the Norland Red).
Yukon Gold

Norland Red
After harvesting we washed them off.  Now don't take that as gardening advice, because most experts recommend not washing them, but I just can't stand not to.  Washing gave me a chance to take a real good look at the potatoes to sort through those damaged during harvest to be used first, those with varmint marks and other issues to be thrown away, and those to go into storage until needed.  I am not sure what kind of varmint we had in the potatoes but a handful of them had gnawed areas showing a pair of long sharp teeth.  They were probably voles but could have been mice.

The potatoes for storage were placed in shallow cardboard boxes.  I made a double layer of potatoes in the bottom of each box, with the top layer being rather sparse for good air circulation.  The fille cardboard boxes were stored in the guest bedroom closet, which is a space completely underground, making it cool year round and it is so rarely used that it gets very little light.  Potatoes need to be stored in the dark.

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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Around the garden

It has been cold and wet for weeks now.  But at least is hasn't snowed in a while.  The garden is growing slowly but there are a few plants that seem to be enjoying this weather.

Potatoes going strong
These are my Norland Red potato plants.  They are big, strong and healthy in spite of the cool soil temperature. 

Tiny Green Bean Bed

This is my green bean bed.  We had so many green beans last year that I cut way back.  The two plants in the back are climbers and the two in the front are bush beans.  The large green clump in the front left is one of my many chives.

Onion sets

Here is an onion bed which is just to the left of the green bean bed.  While it is hard to see in this picture, they are all planted in nice straight rows.  My hubby planted them this year.  When I plant them, they come up in unruly clumps.
Telephone Pole Peas

Growing at the base of the net trellis are telephone pole peas.  This is an heirloom variety of climbing pea that we first tried last year.  To be honest, we have not had the most luck with heirloom varieties.  Some of that may be our inhospitable climate and some of that is because for many heirlooms, there is just not enough information about the requirements of the plants so we have to do our best and guess. 

These peas were a heavy producer.  Much heavier than I was expecting.  My daughter would run outdoors and pick peas by the handful, eating them pod and all!  I am so glad she loves veggies.

We saved lots of telephone pole pea seeds last year, simply letting the pods dry on the vine.  When we cleaned out the peas at the end of the season I shelled all the dried peas and stored them in a paper bag (which I remembered to label... an ongoing theme for me).  The saved seeds were sown thickly and are doing well.

Behind the peas are the catnip plants.  With this many cats we need catnip, it just wouldn't be right otherwise.  To the right of the peas is the lower strawberry patch.

The soil to the left of the peas is actually full of corn.  The corn is about 2 inches tall and can't even be seen in the picture.  At this rate we may have corn for Halloween!
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