Potatoes

So Many Potatoes
Originally uploaded by Alexander Yates

Well, it's almost time to plant the potatoes. Every spring I've gone out and cut the potatoes sprouting in my cupboard and set them a foot apart on the newly warming soil. I was 19 when I first asked a woman who'd grown up on a farm, how do you grow potatoes. She said, cut the spud in pieces. Make sure there are one or two eyes per piece. Plant them and watch them grow. And be sure to continue to mound the dirt around the plants, as the ones exposed to the light will turn green. That green stuff is toxic you know, as is the plant itself. But the spud, oh my, so delicious. And when the plant gets it's pretty flowers, either white or purple, you can reach into the soil and feel around at the base of the plant for a sizable new potato. I like to cook these with the new peas that are on--so springy and wonderful.

If you want to follow tradition, plant your potatoes on Good Friday. It's a blessing.

Sweet Flower

Potatoes

Those little fingerlings are good to eat about now, with the cold weather here, and the desire for more carbs. It's December and the ground isn't frozen yet, so this means go out and dig the rest of the spuds. I love how crispy root vegetables are in the fall. We always ate sliced potatoes with a bit of salt. Dad would do the peeling for dinner and that's when we got the treat. We thought it was a treat, anyway. I'm thinking that any carrots and potatoes that you eat this time of year have more moisture in them, that's what makes them so crunchy and delish.

When I lived in North Carolina for a couple of months in the early 70s, the potatoes the neighbors grew where as big as bakers you buy at the grocers. I grew disappointing potatoes this year. They are small and gnarly, but it's so rewarding digging them anyway. I've heard from many folks that the gardens did the worst ever this year, so no worries, right? There's always next year.

And now I must tell you about the fabulous sunrises and sunsets we've been having lately. And great walking days. Huh, did someone push the scramble button on the weather, or something. Yes, 50 degree days and sun. Lovely weather to sit on a hunk of sandstone by the bay. If we can get our vitamin D in the winter, this is good. I take it daily, but getting out in the rays is even better.

So back to potatoes, they come in many varieties. I like the yellow fin. Very sweet and good baked or mashed. Also the regular russet is good. And red potatoes are nice in the spring. You can plant peas early, early and cook them with potatoes. I even think you can plant peas in the fall for a spring crop. They could rot, though. Experiment.

And one of my favorite cookbooks Yummy Potatoes: 65 Downright Delicious Recipes has a great potato, onion, and tomato dish. Try it.

Ciao! Flower

Fingerlings

For some reason this Fingerling makes me think of Maurice Sendak and his book about the child whose father is off at sea. Can't remember the name of it now, and there are ghost children in the book that are called something like Fingerling, and her little brother is stolen by the Fingerlings and turned to ice. Anyway, this is sort of a gross word for food because a fingerling potato is shaped like a finger, a pudgy stubby finger grant you. But when roasted. they are sweet and tender—and of course more expensive. They are just potatoes. You say potato, I say potato. I'm tired today, can you tell?

Potatoes are in the nightshade family, plants that at poisonous if you eat their leaves. Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers—all nightshade. I read long ago that if you have arthritis you shouldn't eat these foods—it will make your pain worse. Some people avoid the nightshade family for just this reason. There are many reasons not to eat certain foods and not all of them apply to everyone. What I mean to say here is eating is personal. It can be mindful, which it hasn't been for me in a while. Lately I've been more frantic, as the details wind down from the divorce—I seem to be keying up. Yesterday I secured new insurance—for the condo and the car. Together they are $70 more than before, mostly because I'm in a different county, not because I'll be single soon. My advice is, if you are working out the details of your expenses, be sure to call your insurance agents first. It's not a given that your policy will remain the same. Your support payment could be calculated low.

Okay then, when you dig your potatoes, use a pitch fork, not the wiry tined one, but the thick pronged one. Dig carefully so you don't puncture the potatoes. Of course, you will puncture some. Eat those right away. Potatoes grow pretty much directly under the plant and around it perhaps one foot. Chef George at NCI said you can grow a substantial amount of fingerlings in a 5 gallon bucket, they'll just fill that thing up. I don't suppose I could plant them now and have them come up in the spring. That happens naturally—then I wouldn't have to remember whether it is Good Friday or not. That's when you plant, you know.

Okay then, happy day,

Flower

Quilts & Potatoes

I always thought the Palouse looked like a giant quilt, all those plowed fields, fallow dirt next to squares of spring wheat. A patchwork of greens and browns and the little strips of unfarmable land, sagebrush covered—a lovely sage green. The community garden is a patchwork, too. Not as lovely from a distance, in fact somewhat homely with the netting and posts and garden art, a garage sale of plants. But up close, it is beautiful. The colors and scents delicious. Once an art teacher said to me, paint dead leaves. I was painting all these swirling, twisting leaves at the time. So I tried it, sketching the curled and dried leaves of the tomato plants, the twists of corn silk on the aging ears of corn, the sunflowers, with their huge leaves browning and curling. The airbrush painting ended up printed in a herb magazine. To me it looks like tobacco hanging to dry in a North Carolina barn.

I lived in North Carolina for a couple of months. Ended up in Boone where I worked as a key-punch operator in a college computer office. All that big equipment that took up several rooms we now have stored in little boxes, laptops, etc. Amazing. Anyway, the neighbors had a garden in the yard between our rental house and their home. One day the used the pitchfork and pulled out spuds the size of grapefruit. It was amazing to see. I remember those potatoes like it was yesterday. Mashing them, making the little mound on the plate with the spoon indentation, a lake for gravy. All those delicious potatoes.

If you grow potatoes, it will be time to dig them and let them air dry. Clean off the dirt with a brush or rag and store them in a bag in the cupboard or basement. They need to be dry and dark. Light makes them sprout and also makes them turn green. I've grown many different varieties of potatoes—yellow fin, red potatoes, and the regular Idaho Spud. My mother once said she picked potatoes when she was a kid. I said you don't pick potatoes, you dig them. She looked at me very indignantly, she had a way of doing that, we picked them she said—off the ground, they'd been turned up by the tractor. Oh, I see. I imagine the field and my mother and her sister and brothers, picking potatoes in the hot fall sun.

I'm thinking of potato salad, potato pancakes, baked potatoes, French fries, potato puffels, potato soufflé. hash browns. Here's a book of spud recipes that looks interesting- More Than Mashed

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