We've Struck Starch! The First Potato Out of the Ground at Zzyzx Road's Garden!

First Potato Out of the Ground at Zzyzx Road!

This morning, Lou and I pulled out this little purple beauty out of the first bin.  She wan't very big, but it was proof that I had done something right.  I'm still going to give these guy at least another month before I harvest anything, but I could take the little baby potatoes out now.

This is a Purple Majesty, a small potato that is richer in many vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants than a commercially grown russet, or a genetically-altered Frito-Lay monstrosity.  They actually have patents on their mutant potatoes.

You can buy packaged "seed potatoes" at a garden center or nursery, that looks like the photo on the right.  It's sprouted and ready for planting.  This one, however, I seeded myself, from a half-dollar-sized Purple Majesty that I got from the organic potatoe guy at one of our farmers' markets.  When you buy potatoes from Safeway, they are usually sprayed with chemicals that retard sprouting.  Even our largest nurseries did not sell seedlings for anything beyond plain, old Russets or Yukon Golds, so that's why I "grew my own."  I have about a dozen different varieties growing right now.

Because I am phenomenally lazy, there was no way in hell that I was going to dig several feet down in my back garden, so I learned that you can grow potatoes in tubs, like Rubbermaid storage bins.  I picked 18-gallon tubs, had Mom and Lou drill holes (I don't get to play with power tools ince the rice cooker incident).  You add a few inches of soil every few weeks, as the plants grow taller, until the whole tub is full, then you wait for the flowers to bloom and wither, and you have potatoes!  To the right, you can see my four tubs, full of plants and soil, and the flowers are just beginning to form.

Ess, bench, sei a mensch!

-Zanne