her able hands

I’m so glad I made myself get out on Thursday night for a couple of hours and get most of the potatoes harvested. We’ve had quite a lot of rain since and they were definitely ready to come up out of the soil.

As a matter of fact, just about every single Rose Finn Apple plant had one large potato that was completely rotted, basically a gushy husk of skin, mostly deflated, with just enough slimy flesh inside to thoroughly skeeve me out every time I reached into a clump of stems and tubers to try to loosen them from the soil and stuck a finger into the nasty bit. You would think I’d have learned after, oh, the tenth time, but no. No I didn’t.

Potatoes are one of my favorite things to grow. Kids (and even sometimes adults) are amazed that the actual potato doesn’t grow on the visible part of the plant. Those gorgeous nightshade flowers can really suck you in and trick you into expecting fruit set right there where all of the show happens. But potatoes grow under the soil on a specialized stem called a stolen. The “fruit” is actually a tuber growing on an intricate series of stems that look for all the world like roots.

I’m addicted to the French Fingerling family of potatoes, and the above specimen is the Rose Finn Apple, a pale pink skinned, buttery-waxy-fleshed spud of the utmost deliciosity. These babies are just incredible.

Plant potatoes in deep, rich, loamy soil, a bit on the acid side of the ph spectrum, to help fight scab. They prefer full sun, and I think I might have had a better yield if I had a few less hundred year-old oak branches overhanging the gardens. A fertilizer high in phosphorous every couple of weeks helps with tuber development, but watch out for high nitrogen, or it’s all leafy greens above ground, and a few dinky taters come harvest time.

I think the Rose Finn Apple plants died back a bit early due to a slight beetle infestation. It was short-lived, but after a week the leaves all turned brown-yellow and the vines died. Time to get out the digging fork. Once I got going, I was enjoying my alone time in the humid evening air so much that I decided to move on to the dozen hills of All Blues. They could have used a couple more weeks, I think, but fine, they’re up now. Six pounds of those and about 20 pounds of the Rose Finn.

Rose Finn’s are a pretty decent keeper, though I’ll end up giving some away and they’ll get eaten quickly. We love them in soups, salads, just lightly steamed with butter and parsley, salt and pepper, or even grilled. Yum! All Blue’s are also a good keeper, and make the most scrumdiliicious home fries. I really need to make sure I get my potatoes in full-sun next year so I can have some for winter. These will never make it past September! I need to try to keep some back for planting next year, too.

I still have a 20-foot row of German Butterballs to harvest, and I’m definitely giving them another few weeks before I go near them. They’re long-term keepers with buttery flavored yellow flesh and skin. I adore them mashed with roasted garlic and fresh parsley, and even though I’m making an effort to lay off the carbs, I’m just not going to give away all of my potatoes. The row these babies are planted in gets just a little bit more sun than other rows, so I’m hoping it will yield the promised 15-20 pounds by the end of August.

You know, it’s funny, I didn’t like potatoes at all for about ten years—was so not excited about the three boring varieties in the grocery store. I hated how much I had to cut off of them and how fast they grew eyes, big purple tentacles reaching up out of the bag at me. Then I tried French Fingerling potatoes at a farm market in Blooming Grove New York. Smitten doesn’t even begin to describe it. Madly, passionately in love comes a little closer. Oh, these spuds! With their flesh melting against my tongue in buttery, crumbly, creamy bits and their tender, thin skins slipping off and tasting of the rich earth. A whole new world of potatoes!

So how about you? Do you grow them or buy quarts of fancy heirlooms at a farm market or CSA? Do you have a favorite variety? What do you think is the best way to eat them?

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