my taters

[bluelacedredhead]

Thanks for the offer. With any luck I will see him on Saturday when he comes to pick up the paint he ordered.

I'm going now to the spud centre's site and see what they have to say about the varieties you've grown this year!!

Okay, I'm back...Seems they have a Rural New Yorker added October 30, 2002 as well as a White Rural New Yorker added the very same day. So am I to understand that this variety has more than one name? Or are there actually variations, hence the Rural (Only) designation?

www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/protect/dir/potgare.shtml

[canadamike]

I'd bet on a mistake on that one. The name White Rural NY is more descriptive and complete, and the one they use at the ressource center. It is possible there are 2 names for the same and they approved both, just in case, in fact it is highly probable.

These are only APPROVED varieties, meaning they have been checked for glyco-alkaloid content and deemed safe. It has nothing to do with them having them at the farm, although those they grow have to be listed here of course, a government could hardly justify not respecting its own laws... the list of what they have is here:

pgrc3.agr.gc.ca/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_query.pl

[canadamike]

Here are some pics of today's harvest, I would eyeball it at 250 pounds. It was much harder, a lot of them were in clayish loam or straight clay. I can tell you EARLAINE AND EARLY ROSE can sing in clay, those 2 seemed unbothered, I would say clayish loam would be my soil of choice for them, as for CAIN'S IRISH ROCK. GERMAN BUTTERBALL tended to give smaller tubers, but numerous.

Here they are:

CROTTE D'OURS (BEAR DROPPINGS? ) Mine are more violet/purple than the very dark brownish with a puple hue tubers that I planted. maybe the soil? Or maybe over time they will darken?

Picture of 3 hills:



SIBERIAN, 3 hills: this is a wonderful small tater for the baby potato/new potato market that is all the rage around here. Only a couple are of regular size, at the smaller end of the spectrum of the taters you will find in a 10 pounds bag at the grocery store, most are squash ball size. Even now, at the end of the season, they are perfect for this, They are a beautiful white with pale pink eyes. You get a huge number of them. They will come back here for sure, and in a pretty large number. The yield is very good, as this picture of 3 hills will show, followed by one of the small row:





GERMAN BUTTERBALL the best I ever had boiled ( waiting to taste Tom's babies) and great mashed. Very deep yellow flesh. Cut one open in your plate and the whole kitchen smells of yesteryears, when cooking the potatoes would fill the house with a tantalizing aroma:

5 hills then the row:





EARLY ROSE: THIS IS THE HELL OF A PRODUCER of big long rectangular/oblong potatoes. Throw any soil at it ( I had 3 different types for them) and it will reward you indifferently. The hills were so full that many of you asking me for seed potatoes will get some weirdly shaped ones, the later baby tubers being flattened by the big ones already fighting for space. Many just look like nuckle joints The best and most uniform producer of large long potatoes.

Picture of 2 hills and the row( at left, the right row is CAIN'S IRISH ROCK):





EARLAINE: another big producers of big squarish potatoes. My biggest potato this year is an EARLAINE, too bad my scale died on me, it is over 2 pounds for sure, probably closer to 3, and was far from being alone or the only big one in the hill. For some reason, I lost the picture of a hill I took, I only have the row. Trust me , they are big and love clayish loam.



CAIN'S IRISH ROCK : Another excellent producer, I tasted one raw after an Earlaine, and was surprised at the low water content/ high dry matter content of this one, and the taste, raw, was superior to EARLAINE and even GERMAN BUTTERBALL.

Picture of 5 hills, the row is pictures in a previous photo along with EARLY ROSE:



Well, that's it folks, I only have UP TO DATE and PINK FIR APPLE to dug up now and I badly need a back massage

[bluelacedredhead]

I tried digging taters yesterday and I can't find any?? Michel, you sent lots of seed and I planted at least that many, LOL. I guess I had better try digging a little further along the rows.

[canadamike]

Have you been drinking scotch

I sent you 11.5 pounds of fingerlings. Given the number of eyes on those things, if you cut them in pieces, there's enough for a 200 pounds harvest. That's GOT to show somewhere!! Nobody can hide something that big. Even if you did not cut them, you're good for well over 100 pounds

Remember, the things grow stems and flower in white!!! Look for dead stems!!

Ha! City people....

[grunt]

Michel: Check out the shipping scales at canadianweigh.com/
they have one for $39.00 that will go to 34 Kg (75 lbs). I have one of the same model that goes to 25 Kg (55 lbs). Can be battery powered or plugged in. Easy to lug around, and accurate.

[bluelacedredhead]

I'm going to blame it on the weather. They must have just rotted in the ground

That, and the 70ft long Queensland Blue squash vine strangled them all as it made it's way atop everything else in the garden!!!