Ummm....Taters!

Growing up, my family (dad, mom, me, and my younger brother, Eric) always vacationed with my Aunt and Uncle and their kids. We always found a quiet little island off the Carolinas or in the Gulf where we could collect sharks teeth, ride bikes, play cards, eat, and have a great time! Now my brother and my cousin, Andrew, are two peas in a pod! They are goofy, outgoing, witty, sometimes annoying boys! There was one particular vacation when I was in high school or early college where those two were in especially rare form! Their quick wit and goofiness was pushing my Uncle Jim to the edge (Oh Uncle Jim...there are no words to describe him!). I don't know how it started or why it started, but the entire week (and still to this day when potatoes are eaten) those two ran around giggling about taters! "Ummm taters" is all I remember from that trip. So this blog entry is dedicated to Eric and Andrew...ummm TATERS!

Here's a picture of some of us (there are about 5 people missing from this trip) during our Grand Canyon adventure a few years ago.


So, we dug potatoes last night. In April, we planted red, white, and Yukon gold potatoes. You plant potatoes in the spring by getting old potatoes that have started to grow eyes (the white viney things). You can cut each eye out separately, along with a chunk of the potato, and plant the eye.

Come summer time, the potato plant will get large and flower, while below lots of potatoes are waiting. We dug two rows last night and here's what we got:

That's a lot of potatoes considering we still have five more rows to dig!

When you're digging potatoes, it's easiest to use a pitch fork. But be careful not to stab the potatoes! If you do injure one, make sure you eat it soon...if not, it may rot! Use the pitch fork to lift the plant from the ground and flip it over. Hopefully you'll find lots of taters underneath.



Keep the potatoes dry and cool and they should last for a while. We usually store ours in the basement.

Here's a picture of our biggest catch:

On the right is a normal sized red potato...on the left is the queen bee of red potatoes!

I promise to add some potato recipes soon!

Finally...another quote from Deb! Although this isn't really a quote, it's more of a disgusting statement:
We were at my parents having dinner, bring the food to the table about to eat, when my mom calls my brother. He was out of town and she had been dog-sitting. She proceeded to tell him that Knuckles (the dog) had "runny poopie" that day. Really mom!!??!! Great dinner conversation!