I suppose it goes without saying that it is hard to see what you can't see.
Back in May I planted three types of potatoes: French Fingerling, left over from last season; Yukon Gold purchased at the local farm store, and basic Russets, gone to sprout in my Mother-in-law's garage. I cleared the trenches, scattered in the seed potatoes, covered and waited. Along the way, they actually sprouted (I am always surprised by such things), blossomed, and...well, that's the mysterious part. After the blossoms it's hard to know exactly what else might be going on beneath the surface.
On faith, then, I weeded and watered and watched and waited. For the past two weeks I have thought to dig them up, believing -- for reasons I can't quite put my finger on -- that it was "time." I was supposed to have help today, but that fell through. No worries, however. I rather enjoyed the discovery process, and it didn't turn out to be that much work.
Which is a coy way of saying there weren't that many potatoes to dig.
I started with the Fingerlings; pitch-fork loosening the soil, then hands and knees and fingers making my way along the trench. I will say this: if there were an award at the State Fair for the smallest potato there would be a blue ribbon in my future. There are certainly nice sized ones, but my heavy harvest in this category this year is less the size of the eponymous finger and more along the dimensions the lentil -- half a dozen or so to the mouthful.
On to the Yukon Gold, results were a little more impressive -- golden golf balls and slightly smaller unearthed in this partial trench abutting the now-vacated garlic bed.
To be sure, I had the least invested in the Russets, which turns out to be a good thing. They were the most disappointing producers -- the harvest barely replacing the eyed chunks I had buried in the beginning.
I have more reading to do on the finer art of potato cultivation, despite the "any boob can grow potatoes" reassurance proffered by my preliminary inquiries. This boob's efforts would barely rate a C- by any objective assessment, although the 15 pounds or so I weighed in with isn't a total embarrassment. Besides, I am sure they will make up in taste what they lack in volume. Right.
Postscript: Click here for a panoramic view of the garden. The image, which takes a moment to fully load, will open in a new window. Click and hold your mouse button anywhere on the image, then drag the photo from side to side to see the full scene.
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