My Little Potato Patch 3: Dud Spuds

My potatoes grew luxuriantly all summer. I added compost and hay at intervals and made sure they were watered. I was expecting a bumper crop of nice big spuds! (See my May 3 and May 29 blogs.)

 I ended up with duds! I actually had a NEGATIVE yield! I planted more potatoes in the spring than I harvested in the fall. I showed my pitiful colander of taters to my neighbors, who looked at it thoughtfully and remarked that it reminded them of their 401K—“What happened to the other 75 percent?”

My chicken manure-based compost is potent stuff. Perhaps it was too much of a good thing. The green vines looked great and were at least four feet long in most cases. I wish that energy would have gone into producing potatoes!

I used half of my crop in the beef stew I served for supper tonight. The other half will become potato kale soup. There is nothing like a big pot of soup at the end of a blustery fall day. (I’ll just try not to think about just how much effort went into the two meals!) Begonia

0 Comments

Dud Spuds

This is my entire harvest!