Garden Potatoes

This year my husband Jason decided he wanted to grow potatoes in the garden. He'd been harboring this idea for years and when we expanded the garden in the spring, he claimed space for his potato experiment. After doing some research to understand the structure of the potato plant, Jason had a plan to grow them in tall cages that he would fill with dirt as the plants matured, hopefully promoting the growth of potatoes in the cages as the roots developed. He found some multi-colored potato starts and set up two cages, each containing two starts. He planted three more starts without cages in another part of the garden.  As the foliage grew inside the cages, he dumped dirt on top of it, covering it up with the idea of building more roots, thus making more potatoes. The potatoes that were not in cages got a little more dirt mounded on top, but not as much as the caged ones.

According to the research, potatoes take at least 12 weeks to mature. Jason lovingly ensconced his potatoes in extra dirt every couple of weeks and I planted my tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs. As the potatoes grew, so did my curiosity. The dilemma with potatoes, or any root veggie for that matter, is that you can't see them growing so you don't know if they are actually producing anything. After about 8 weeks, I couldn't help myself. I dug up the smallest plant that was in the ground and found three walnut sized potatoes under there. Jason was not happy about it, but at least we knew something was happening. 

Finally, Jason decided the time had come to unearth his experiment. He pushed the cages over on their sides and started digging from the bottom. Lo and behold, there were potatoes! They were not big or plentiful, but they were there. Interestingly, the plant that had the highest yielded and the largest potatoes was a purple potato plant that was not in a cage. We determined that the cages were a great experiment, but didn't produce the desired effect. The other interesting aspect to this experiment has to do with pest control. We have a healthy rabbit population in our neighborhood and they devour anything that isn't protected by chicken wire. They munch my flowers regularly and the herbs in pots get destroyed if they are not placed on plant stands. We also saw a groundhog in the backyard this year and I'm certain he joined the rabbits in laying waste to my radishes. But the leaves of the potato are poisonous and they stayed in tact while other plants got became a salad bar for the critters. 

Once all the plants were harvested, we had a couple pounds of red, white and purple potatoes. I made a big bowl of potato salad and served it to Jason's family who were visiting from Texas. We decided that they did taste better and more fresh than store bought potatoes. Plus, the purple ones are uniquely lovely and make an impressive presentation when placed on the table. We'll certainly plant potatoes again and maybe I'll find a recipe that is a little more exotic to showcase their beauty.