A taste of summer

I love to snuggle in on a cold, snowy night in front of a fire and dream of spring. Usually a few gardening catalogs help me get into the spirit. However, this taste of summer helps too. Pictured are corn, hot peppers and potatoes from last summers garden. The corn and peppers (as you can tell) have been hanging out in the freezer. The potatoes are from the root cellar (also known as our barely heated basement). They will make a tasty warm treat. I boil the seeded peppers with chicken stock (enough to cover) until the peppers are soft. Blend and add corn (off the cob) and diced cooked potatoes. I add a bit of cream, sour cream or yogurt. It is fun to have a "garden fresh" soup in February. I love it "as is" but add a little potato starch to thicken it for my husband.

Now turning to dreams of spring planting. I want at least two pepper varieties this year. It's a tough decision and Pepper Joe's catalog is not helping. I want them all!

I know I will grow a "black" tomato variety. I love their rich, tangy flavor. I have my eyes on black krim (from Penny's Tomatoes) but there are so many I would love to try.
Any pepper, tomato or potato variety suggestions appreciated. What are your favorites?

New home construction

I have 40# of seed potatoes sitting on the dining room table just waiting to find a spot in the garden. Dear hubby is always willing to make room in the garden for spuds. We have 5 varieties this year and I can't wait to try each of them over the fire pit.

The rhubarb is taking over the garden. My husband will pass on that treat while I enjoy some stevia sweetened cooked rhubarb/apples with cinnamon. It will be nice for an evening snack and on oatmeal in the morning. Not using sugar much limits the options for rhubarb recipes but I still enjoy it. I think that some rhubarb/raspberry wine will be in the works this summer. I haven't tried to make wine with rhubarb yet but I have had some made by others. I haven't been impressed but I think I might enjoy it if I go light on the rhubarb.

Lots of good stuff growing already including lupine, peas, radishes, basil, currants and lovage. I also have 2 varieties of green peppers, 4 varieties of tomatoes and ground cherries started in the basement and ready to head out to the garden after hardening off. Hopefully the peppers will fare well. I have about 3 trays (12 pots in each) but one really took a hit today. I was headed out to the garage with them took a misstep and started to tumble down the stairs. I managed to twist around and fall into the house (sounded much better than going down the stairs) and went face first into the pepper plants. I'm a bit sore but I think I did better then they did. I re-potted them and hopefully after another week or two of TLC they will be ready for the garden. Right now they look a bit rough.

I enjoyed sitting out in the garden this evening and admiring the lupine. They don't stay in flower for long but they are one of my favorites. Happy gardening!

Need more space, always need more space

One might think that that 12 raised beds and two large garden areas would be enough. They are not! I'm always looking for one more spot to tuck in a plant (or a few dozen). In addition to my usual annuals, I'm looking forward to putting in more raspberries, blueberries, currants and horseradish.

This year we will grow potatoes in a 4X8 raised bed garden, 10 smart pots/grow bags and quite a few large plastic pots. Potatoes are so easy to grow in most anything. I have heard of people growing them right in bags of soil. I've also seen them in a wide variety of containers including tires. I am always looking for a place to grow more potatoes. We have some food grade buckets we may use this year too. Drill holes in the bottom, add some good dirt, spuds and water then watch them grow!

Have you tried or heard of any unique methods for growing spuds? More ideas are always appreciated!

Spring planning

Another spud post? Sure, why not. My favorite way to deal with winter blues is to place my seed orders. Picking out the potatoes to grow this year is especially fun. This photo is of our 2009 harvest. Hopefully 2010 will be a successful potato growing year. The 2010 spuds are:

LaRatte- supposedly creamy when pureed so I'm looking forward to trying it in soups and sauces like I did with the Rose Finn Apple potato. The "rich chest-nutty flavor" sounds worth a try.

Purple Peruvian- a purple potato? I have to try it just because it should look great on the plate. Hopefully it tastes great too!

Peanut- I like the description of it being firm after steaming so it can be sauteed with other vegetables. Sounds good. I enjoy potatoes tossed with peppers, onions and tomatoes and topped with a hint of smoked cheese. Should be a nice fire-pit spud too.

Irish Cobbler- "makes the greatest mashed potatoes". What other reason do I need!

Inca Gold- I love the yellow color. We might appreciate the fact that it is described as a good keeper if we manage to not eat all the spuds in the fall.

The question is: Will I manage not to give in and buy just one more (or 2) variety of potatoes to grow this year? Only time will tell.

Potato review

Although we don't care too much about store bought potatoes, my husband and I are hooked on the wide variety of spuds we can grow ourselves. Unfortunately, this picture is of the last of the potatoes from this years crop. However, we are left with tasty memories and fun plans for next year. This year we grew Adora, Carola, Mountain Rose and Rose Finn Apple potatoes. Although they would all be worth trying again, we will be growing 5 different varieties this year. I just want to try every variety of spuds I can get my hands on at least once if possible.

If I ever decide to grow a variety I've tried before, it is likely it will be Rose Finn Apple. It is a fingerling and was wonderful roasted whole on the grill or fire pit or used as a thickener. I peeled them and pureed the Rose Finn's into soups and sauces. It makes for a smooth and delicious thick soup.

The Mountain Rose is just a beautiful spud. The rose coloring makes for unusual but lovely mashed potatoes. They were creamy and delicious. This potato was also great fried in slices or wedges on the fire-pit. I like them for the taste alone but the pretty rose color is a nice bonus. They really dress up a plate. A spoonful of the pink Mountain Rose mashed potatoes looked nice next to a spoon of the mashed golden yellow Carola spuds. I can't say much about the storing qualities of either the Mountain Rose or Rose Finn Apple, we ate them up before they could be put to the test.

The Adora and Carola are both good potatoes but I wouldn't rush to grow them again. They were good on the fire-pit (all spuds are) or boiled and the Carola made a richly flavored mashed potato. Both were excellent keepers. We don't have a root cellar yet (it is in the dreaming stages) but they stored well in a slightly cool basement.

I haven't found a potato we don't like yet but there are some we really love to grow. Our favorite treat will always be digging new potatoes, splashing them with the garden hose and putting them on the fire-pit without them making a trip into the house. Although we enjoy trying to eat a "Hundred Mile Diet", nothing beats the 50 foot diet. You can't get more local than that.

Harvest time

Happy Birthday

It can't be just a coincidence that the beginning of my potato harvest occurs within one week of the birthdays of the only 2 guys I know that would consider mashed potatoes to be a great birthday gift!

These are the adora potatoes and they are delicious. They have been especially good baked and as oven fries. Next week they will be making a short trip from the garden to fire-pit with just a brief stop at the water hose.

The weather has been a bit cool for the peppers and tomatoes but it has been nice to get some rain. We have picked the first two Autumn Britten raspberries and they are wonderful. Hopefully there will be many more to come. We put in 25 plants and 22 of them look like they are doing very well.

Growing potatoes

Do two people really need 20# of seed potatoes? Apparently my husband and I believe that we do! Last year we grew Purple Viking and they were very good. They made especially tasty mashed potatoes but we enjoyed them roasted over the fire pit as well. We ran out of them in January but they stored that long fairly well. We also planted some Russets. We hadn't planned on that but our co-op had some on sale that were sprouting so we grew those too.

This spring we will plant Carola, Adora, Mountain Rose and Rose Finn Apple along with Purple Viking. It sure looks like a lot of potatoes to grow in a small area but it works well. Last year we used five Smart Pots and a 4x4 raised bed for potatoes planted in a mixture of leaves, grass and soil. We hilled more of the same mix on top as they grew. We really liked the Smart Pots because we just had to pour them into the wheelbarrow at harvest time. The russets were planted right into the soil in one garden and then hilled with more soil later.

I know that spuds are cheap at the grocery store but there are so many fun varieties to try that we will only get by growing our own. Next year 30# of seed potatoes?