All that meat and no potatoes?

I thought I better quit posting about meat, lest you think I don’t eat vegetables.  I should do a grazing post, and I should do a garden post, and then a Father’s day post… .  Potatoes will have to do for now.

I likelove potatoes, I like to cook them, I like to eat them, and I really like growing them, since they are so easy to grow.  Low fertility and water requirements, and a great yield if you select the right variety and provide a little care, such as hilling.  Potatoes too, are like apples, with many different flavors, textures and uses.  Thought provoking names such as German Butterball, and Garnet Chile just make you want to try them all.  The home garden is good place to get away from supermarket fare such as the low yielding, but ubiquitous Yukon Gold, or the dry texture of the Russet.  Potatoes are also easy to store, requiring no further energy to keep until spring.  Just harvest, store and eat.  Of course, you do need to store them in root cellar or basement and keep them from drying out or getting wet, and keep them from freezing or getting too warm.  Oops, am I making them sound fussy?  They aren’t – when we buy food from the store, someone has taken all that fussiness away – it’s time for people to take charge of their food and being responsible for it, from seed to plate.  I live with my food 24/7 every day of the year, in some form or another.  Everything I do on the farm is connected in some way.  The cows eat the grass and make milk and meat,  their poop helps fertilize the gardens, and without each of us doing our part, we would become, well, nothing I guess.  Rambling here…

 

Why do I like potatoes in the garden?  Because in the process of hilling the soil around them, I am weeding a good portion of the garden.  I don’t need to weed first and then hill.  These weeds are small and some may be severed by the hoe and some may just be buried.  Either works just fine.
Potatoes form between the planted seed potato or piece and the soil line.   If you don’t hill, or hill enough, your yield will be small.  I find a hoe to be perfect, for the job.  I’m only moving a small amount of soil at a time so it is easy on my back, arms and whatever else is used hoeing.  Potatoes need to be hilled several times before bloom, after that, you have missed your opportunity.  It also takes a fair amount of soil, so the plants need to be spaced accordingly.  My rows are 4′ apart and the potatoes in the row are approximately 3 1/2′ apart.  I also don’t plant too deeply, when it is time to harvest, the potatoes will be above or at the soil line, no digging and stabbing, mostly just scraping the hill aside and hunting for bounty.  I still get excited at each hill when we harvest.  Easter Egg hunt for anal gardeners, I guess… .  And, I don’t irrigate my potatoes, they will keep longer if you don’t.

Lath, the inspector.  Useless fact o’ the day – she’s Blackie’s sister.  She is Della’s companion for the summer.  Their job this week is keeping the headlands mowed.  They are doing a great job.  But, they are mighty curious.  Oh, and what is that behind her?  A partially dismantled greenhouse?  I guess I don’t need that roll-up side now with the convertible top down 🙂

While I’m hilling potatoes I can’t resist weeding the adjacent onion row.  The multi-plant plant block of onions makes it easy to reach over there and hoe away.

Potatoes hilled. 

Meanwhile back at the headland detail.  Della’s thing is to stare at what she wants until I notice her and do something about it.  If I don’t notice, she starts burning holes in me.  She’s trying to look tough with that soil on her horns.

I guess she really means it! 

I’ve been immersing myself in Holistic Planned grazing, especially Greg Judy’s high density stock grazing, first by reading and pondering it, and this year by finally doing it.  It is hard.  My grass isn’t good enough yet, but at least it keeps my mind from wandering.  The herd is easier, these two – aaack, giving them enough space to keep Lath from Della’s horns, and still make them eat the grass.  Let’s just say it’s a work in progress.  This next miniature paddock was about 30′ x 40′ and they did a pretty good job.  For Lath’s sake, I am leaving them without a back fence, and there is a lane to get back to the water.  So they actually have more space than the 1200 square feet in the new grass.  And in reality, I would rather move a wire and post or two than fire up the tractor.

The only thing that excites me as much as cow guts, is cow poop.  The texture of this cow pie (thanks Della) shows that Della is getting enough long stem forage in her diet.  Normally when I was grazing the grass with a shorter rest period, the grass was greener and lush, and gave the cows the green grass squirts.  I know, I know, file this under more than you wanted to know.

In other news, the Food Renegade has a great post up about Wendell Berry and the NAIS, and of course the Fight Back Friday post is filled with great recipes and ideas.