Successes From The Garden - Potatoes

You could say that potatoes are in my blood. My maternal great grandfather was a potato farmer. He emigrated with his family from Finland to Washington State where he bought a farm on the banks of the Chehalis river. For many years, he provided Yellow Finn potatoes to markets and restaurants across the state. The farm was sold after his death, though the owners still grow Finnish potatoes to this day

I picked up my seed potatoes in mid March and planted after St. Patrick's day. I planted German Butterballs this year (a similar variety to Yellow Finns)

By late April all the potatoes were up

In another bed, a few volunteer Pontiac Reds and Russets came up. I usually pull out volunteers but decided to let these stay

In early June the bed was completely filled in with plants

A week later they were blooming

By the end of June I was able to carefully dig new potatoes to enjoy grill roasted and in potato salad. I continued to harvest new potatoes throughout the summer

In mid September the plants had nearly all died back so it was time to dig. Some of the volunteer Pontiac Reds were huge, weighing in at over a pound each

The German Butterballs were much smaller than I had hoped for, but there were tons of them. So many, in fact, that my yield was an impressive 23/1!