potato selections

[sandbar]

Grew Yukon Gold and Red Pontiac this year. Planted and dug by hand. Got a nice harvest, but way too much work by hand to even think of it being a profitable product at the market.

Hope you have equipment to lighten your workload ...

Like the Yukon Gold ... good taste ... great mashed ... haven't baked any, yet. Makes buttery-colored mashed potatoes. Still, my favorite is Red Pontiac ... I like my mashed potatoes white.

[Alan]

We plant several hundred lbs of tomatoes a year but luckily we have a tractor and potato plow to help with the work. Thanks for all the information everyone, I'm definetly going to order some stuff from MILK RANCH, exspecially peruvian purple, all red, all blue, and some of those mentioned here in this thread. I plan on keeping detailed notes on what I do grow and how they do which I will post here.

-Alan

[canadamike]

Alan, if you are going to go for Fingerlings, you MUST sell LA RATTE. Google it if you don't believe me, they are the most celebrated fingerlings in the world. The chef of a fine restaurant nearby is ready to buy ALL my production, but I do not want to become a commercial producer, except for corn. I don't have the time.
I can't give good advice on keeping quality, I don't have a cellar at this point, nor a cold storage. I am building this spring and it should solve the problem. I live in a house I bought in between 2 ( one that I built and sold an another Iwill build. A guy needs a roof! I maybe got 1,000 pounds of potatoes this year, but I gave away the bulk of it to friends or people in need. It's like that for most of what I don't can or freeze.

Michel

[cff]

Could someone suggest a large type baking potato for the south?

[cff]

Mike you sparked my interest in fingerlings, I checked SSE has the La Ratte's but there price tag is pretty high, 105.00 for 25 lbs =4.20 lb

Can you suggest a cheaper supplier ?

canadamike said:

Alan, if you are going to go for Fingerlings, you MUST sell LA RATTE. Google it if you don't believe me, they are the most celebrated fingerlings in the world. The chef of a fine restaurant nearby is ready to buy ALL my production, but I do not want to become a commercial producer, except for corn. I don't have the time.
I can't give good advice on keeping quality, I don't have a cellar at this point, nor a cold storage. I am building this spring and it should solve the problem. I live in a house I bought in between 2 ( one that I built and sold an another Iwill build. A guy needs a roof! I maybe got 1,000 pounds of potatoes this year, but I gave away the bulk of it to friends or people in need. It's like that for most of what I don't can or freeze.

Michel

[canadamike]

ALAN
Hey it is Christmas and I was interupted. About german butterball, if you read SSE,Rodale or Milk ranch, they will all rave about it. Milk Ranch claims its customers who have tasted it can hardly go back to anything else, and I sure can fit that bill. The smell of that beauty when you cut it in your plate is all over you. It is a (more) beautiful russet with very yellow flesh. I garden in the fields of a former milk farmer friend of mine. The deal is '' you get me manure in the spring and then I garden the whole summer on your land and we share the crops''. But he made the mistake of putting fresh horse manure on my potato patch...I guess you can easily visualize the scab problems that followed...

The Kennebecs where horrible
The Red Chieftain where mostly OK
The Red Pontiacs had Tu Tank Amon mummy's skin
The Yukon Gold where better than the Kennebec, but would have been unsellable
The Rose Finn Apple were mostly OK
The Austrian Crescent were mostly OK
The All Red were perfect
The German Butterball were perfect

I see a patern here, and it seems to me that the old varieties, created in those days where farmers relied on manure, are more appropriate to organic or natural gardening than the new ones. As for production, I did not notice much difference, but then I am not the most reliable source on that, since I mostly don't care, but I can tell you they were pretty much all the same but for the Kennebec, by far the ugliest of the bunch though...

One thing you need to know about the butterballs is that they do not produce a close set of spuds, they REALLY are all over the hill, and they are late. I would not count on them for earlies.

I can give you all the potato advice I can muster, but if I was you I would get in touch with WILL BONSALL, who takes care of the SSE's potato program. Even the canadian government has required his services to create a program where every year, they will work on the preservation of 5 or 6 potato varieties for their genetic bank.

He grows somewhere around 350 varieties. Sure knows more than me and you...I can hook you up to him through SSE if you are not a member ( and if it's the case, you should become one...)

Michel

P.S: As for now, in my heated garage, the Pontiacs are sprouting, and so are the Kennebec's and the Austrian Crescent. But the Butterballs and Rose Finn Apple, albeit in the warmest part of the garage, are still sleeping like Snow White . The others are already eaten.

[canadamike]

Alan

Thanks by the way for creating this site. It is my favorite on the web. I guess you deserve to get the '' Miss Congeniality '' award for it ( LOL , I liked the movie )!

Did you try to make friends with chefs in the bigger cities in your area. I chat with you and others, a lot of others, and I get the feeling that, although I am a very serious gardener and I have sold some stuff, your crowd is mostly small farmers.

My expertise is mostly in sales and marketing. I used to produce shows for a small organization
( mostly fine arts, classicall music, poetry, theatre and all that is hard to sell...) and then graduated to the Ontario Arts Council, where I would train people across Ontario to do so, and the same elsewhere across the country because the expertise of our group was well known.

The reason of our success was that we could convince these organisations thet they were not selling shows, but an idea ( exploring difference is good , discovering is good an PLEASING), a concept, BASICALLY.

To be sold to people, a great performance by an unknown artist cannot taken only as 2 hours of sitting in a room listening at what some other people have decided is good for them. It has to be more than that. People need to feel included in a larger picture, to HAVE A REASON TO DECIDE TO TAKE ACTION BEFORE TAKING THE SAID ACTION. I am coming to natural gardening soon, please follow me.

My friend travelled 300 miles roughly 5 years ago, to treat his wife to ''CATS'' a broadway type musical/ pop opera show in Toronto, now only second in the world for these kind of mega-shows
to New-York. The darn week-end cost him $1500. And I would piss anytime on that show.

The minute he got in the opera house, even when the curtains were down, he had already decided it would be a great experience. It was already a big thing, although he only had see red curtains. The excitement was there. He came back extatic. But when I asked him why, it was all about the fun of leaving Ottawa for Toronto to witness a big thing, an event of some sort, the restaurants, the romance, the CN tower, the big city. And what about the show? ''Oh, it was very good''.

Well, very good maybe, but nevertheless the last thing he talked about

We live in a world where the enveloppe, the wraping is of ultimate importance. And it is not necessarily a bad thing. The wraping of this show was the care he took of his wife, and the pleasure he had to organize it all. After all, 50 years ago, when they were much poorer than us, the size of the gift did not count that much.But the Chritmas paper or the Happy birthday one made it special.

We haven't change that much...

Back to gardening, with an angle on gifts...

I am not a farmer, although the size of my garden is technically commercial . Since I give most of the stuff away to others ( and I know the mayor and the '' officier de règlementation'' ( the guy who gives tickets if you go against the rules or if your dog piss on the neighbours lawn- I don't know the english name for it , sorry!), I have no problems.

But I am an investment and insurance guy, now, and I eat in a lot of restaurants. Of course, business owners, because of their debt level, are vry good potential clients for insurance...And investment once their debts are taken for.

I always make sure to meet the owner or the manager ( most restaurants in North America are owned by a group of partners and or include silent partners ), but except for chains of course, I ALWAYS GO FOR THE CHEF. He is the guy ( unless he is the owner of course, in which case I go for the owner and the chef at once) that is the artist, he sees himself in that way, he often feels like an artist in a world that does not understand him ( whatever his level of ''genious'').

I come in the restaurant with one or more bags of organic veggies and HERBS, HERBS, HERBS. They do a thing to them, I don't know what, everytime ,I feel they know I understand their ART.

I ALWAYS GIVE THEM AWAY, AND ALMOST ALL THE TIME GET REWARDED WITH BIGGER PLATES, SPECIAL WAY OF COOKING A PLATE TO SATISFY ME OR FREE BEER OR WINE.

And I come back with more. It always worked, the only variable being the numbers of time I had to do it, to start the relationship. 3 or 4 is the most I have seen, and soon after the guy asks you to grow a thing for him, and it goes on. It was a free offer that cost nothing, especially in the lights of the freebees, but it permitted me to connect. Once it is done, it is not a mather of commerce but of confidence and loyalty. I get to the owner, for whom I am not an undescript finance guy anymore, but a cool guy who helps the chef and gets him excited.

I go for the owner, but you only have to go for the chef. Make sure he sees your face and meet you. It is all about relationship.

To go back to the beginning of my message, you will be the enveloppe, the wraping, and this guy ( or gal ) will love you for it.

This is not a joke, I could quit my job and supply restaurants if I wanted, with ALL my production, I have been asked.
But I would loose the money that I get from my other job, and it is not worth it, by large. You all know the money you make in that business. I consider myself a semi-retired businessman having the priviledge to feed a lot of people for free, and the love of the dirth explains it almost all.

Merry Christmas again

P.S. Do I sound like a know-it-all or an older guy with experince? I hope it is the latter. Since I am new to forums and such, I don't know if there are codes, habits, things that you should not say, etc...and I am french, so I might lack subtelty or use a wrong choice of words sometime...sorry in advance.

[Alan]

No Mike, you don't sound like a know it all to me. I keep a very personal relationship with the chefs and restraunt owners in this area, often times making sure to set up a business meeting with them that involves setting down and eating with them, I'm also sure to bring them all kinds of goodies for free for them to play with and experiment with. I agree, it shouldn't seem like a business deal, but more like a friendship and mutual partnership for the betterment of both sides of the meeting. Verry good advice. Unfortunately there are not very many resteraunts in this area that are not corporately owned, however Louisville KY is another story and a place that I am currently working on, time will tell, if not in '08 then definetly in '09.

-Alan

[doccat5]

Thanks for the info on the milk ranch site. I'm going to try the German Butterball and Austrian Crescents. If you grow your taters on the ground, you have no problem harvesting small ones early. If you want those for market. Much easier on the back and no more forking accidents. LOL We use oak leaves and straw, and since oak leaves repel potato beetles, we have little crop loss.

[Alan]

I've grown on top of the ground using straw as mulch and cattle pannels to hold the straw in place, it actually worked really well here and we got a great crop of potatoes for a lot less work. It's kind of neat to see potatoes grow this way.

-Alan

[canadamike]

Alan

About your potato recommandations question,

I gave you a brief report on what happened to my potato patch after my friend Luc showered it with fresh manure, but I forgot to say one important thing. It is about the CHIEFTAIN potato. It is a red that is identical to your buddy Red Pontiac, but it produces sizeable spuds MUCH EARLIER. The litterature on them says they are early in sizing up, and the litterature is right, the proof is in the pudding.

The fun thing about them is their resilience and productivity... last summer, given the size of my potato patch ( roughly the equivalent of a 1500 feet row, not enough for you but way too much for 2 families like in my situation) I went against the grain and dug some up in summer to eat new potatoes. All gardeners hate killing plants, but I did it telling myself I have much more than enough and I should enjoy the fruits of my work early if I could.

It was a day when rain was coming, I could see it in the sky. I dug up plenty of plants from all my varieties, brought home roughly 50 pounds of new potatoes to share with friends, and I PUT BACK ALL THE PLANTS IN THE SOIL, JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT , OF COURSE NOT EXPECTING MUCH.

All of them survived, thanks to the rain (watering would do the same) but when I dugged them out again in »October, the CHIEFTAINS had a second harvest of commercially saleable potatoes, NUGGETS as I think you call them in english, anyway, the ones that are expensive at the grocery store...
It was a smaller harvest, roughly 3 to 5 nuggets per plant, but it was the hell of a surprise, and a quite welcome little thing. Not that little actually...The other varieties gave me dime size spuds

I think you would agree, in all logic, that this harvest was related to the great capacity of this variety to produce spuds early, which should be good news for a market grower.

Michel

[Alan]

Michel,

Thanks for that information and I will definetly give them a try this year. It sounds like you had an absolutly amazing crop and experience with them. So taste is like that of Red Pontiac? Potato plants should by nature be pretty resilient, most solaniums are, I often argue that tomatoes are just productive weeds, often times when not planted in the best of conditions they really are!

Some great information on your behalf michel, you definetly know your spuds it sounds like and seem really knowledgable about gardening in general, definetly a great friend and resource to the site.

I've been making a list of the varieties mentioned here and I think I might try to do at least a small trial of all of them for '08, I really appreciate the help here guys.

[plantsnobin]

We grew German Butterball a couple of years ago, purchased from SSE. I don't bother to 'hill' the plants and they do fine. Mulched them with grass clippings, and it is easy to feel around underground with your fingers to harvest some small potatoes without harming the plants.

[canadamike]

Alan

If you ever can differentiate Red Pontiacs and Chieftain, you are a much better man than I am. Both taste wise and harvest wise ( if I can say that in english, I am directly translating here...).

I could never tell the difference, except from a strictly gardening point of view. Early setting of spuds is a very technical thing, one that most people realy don't care about, but for a person like you, it makes a lot of difference. A good couple of weeks of sales at premium prices can't make anybody a millionaire but it helps pay the bills.

Thank you for the kind words in your last response. I am the sort of guy for whom '' what you see is what you get''. My scientific background helps me, but gardening is, in the real life, quite an empiric thing.

And I am an absolute dummy with OKRA. I want it, I try it, I dream of it, I get some, but GOSH... it is so frustating. Apart from planting 2 gazillion splant to get a harvest big enough to pick some, IN ONE DAY, to be served to a table full of friends, can you, or anybody in your friends circle, help me out with this one. As knowledeable as I think I am, as proud as like to be about my garden, I am a stupid fool, unexperienced gardener about okra. »Maybe its the north thing, but I have doubts, although living south sure helps.

I need a solution, and please no black plastic recommandations, I understand it all, but it makes me feel like sleeping with a man...I wont go further...

But Alan, Hey! I am sure you are cute!!!

[Alan]

Not quite cute, though I am a bit sexy, in a big cuddly teddy bear kind of way. Have you ever seen American Choppers? I could pass as a double or possible twin for Mikey, I get that a lot actually from people in public places.


Anyhow, Oakra definetly takes a bit of Southern Voodoo. Not really but it can be hard to get a good single harvest without having an army of plants, that is a good harvest in one days time. We grow Clemson spineless which pumps them out all season long and often times 10-15 plants would suffice for a good single days harvest to feed to a family or friends, we also grow the "long green pod" variety, not quite as productive it seems, but nice longer pods make up for productivity it seems. Another one we have become quite fond of is Alabama Red Oakra which we grew this year from a trade right here on this site, had some nice flavor and beautiful burghandy pods though it wasn't quite as productive as the clemson spineless.

This is definetly a question to ask a hardcore southerner because I myself always end up growing a ton of Oakra plants for market to make up for the lack of a single day/night/morning harvest. I would think that the more Phosphorus and Potassium that you can feed into the roots to induce flowering the quicker you could produce Oakra though I haven't experimented with it too awful much. Bone Meal might speed the Oakra along in flowering and setting seed pods, it is really hard to say. Of course if you are adventerous with your landscaping you could use the Oakra and it's flowers for a bedding plant and fill up the empty spots in your landscape bed with a few extra Oakra plants to harvest through the summer.

I'm sure someone here can help both of us Oakra fools.

Who loves Oakra out there and what can we do to produce more pods from fewer plants?