Tuesday

taters ~

The fall season is fast upon us here in the Northwoods.  The leaves are in peak color ~

 ~ along side the highway by our house ~

It won't be long and Old Man Winter will be sneaking up on us.  Time to get the gardens cleaned out and the harvest put up.















My sister Darla over at darsstuffings ... you may be one of her followers.  Anyhooooooo ... if you are a follower of her blog she has mentioned earlier this spring about a trial potato patch that they had going on over there.  Testing out seed potatoes for this climate.  You can get the details of it all over on her blog :)



Well ...
Last night she calls and says "Do you want some potatoes?"  Bring some buckets and bags and we'll see you tomorrow morning.

So ...
This morning it was off to Dar's to get some taters.  We didn't grow any of our own in the garden this year because we were told earlier in the season that there were going to be plenty to go around.  WOW... they weren't kidding!

Bill (Dar's hubby) had a potato picker all hooked up to the tractor when we got there; but there was a problem.  He had tried it out earlier and because of the rocks in the field they kept catching in the chain and it broke.

So ...
Handyman that he is and along with his brother Pat ~ they rigged up an OLD  straight plow - like the kind they used to use behind a horse and modified it to pull behind the tractor.  It worked okay ... it furrowed the potatoes out but we still had to get in there the old fashioned way and find those taters using pitch forks and our hands.

There was quite a crew on hand ... everybody was picking for themselves and each other.  The work went pretty fast ... but ohhhh ... tonight ... our aching backs.

Today's total for everyone ... around 1300 pounds!

Here's what we bought home ...  3 of the 4 kinds planted.  One kind they are waiting a couple more weeks yet before harvesting.

Viking Purple
Norland Reds 
and
Yukon Gems
Talk about a pile of taters ~ and that's just a fraction of them!
Thanks Dar & Bill !  
and THANK YOU GREG for doing a test plot in their field 
and letting us share in the bounty!!

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

10 comments:

  1. wow! those potatoes look great! so glad you / dar had such a great crop! love those wis. fall colors!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are very welcome Mel~but am I ready for a long winter's nap.
    Today was rough, but worthy. Now I can take care of this concussion now that most the spuds are in...I'm heaving again.
    BlessYa and ThanksAgainForAllTheHelp

    ReplyDelete
  3. WOW, I have been waiting for the results of the harvest. Looks like there was a gold mine. Everyone loves taters!!!

    Love you great entry!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. we live in tater country, (near Antigo) and our neighbor is always giving us more than we can use. I tried freezing mashed potatoes, and they work great boil and mash with butter & milk. I froze meal size portions in plastic freezer bags, works great. Then reheat in micro. I gave lots of frozen mashed potatos to my kid. They do come in handy when I'm in a hurry!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. So many ways to fix potatoes even candy from left over mashed potatoes. My younger sister growing up always said she was going to marry a man who likes fried potatoes. She did marry a man from Miss. who loves fired potatoes and everything else.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's a lot of potato soup... and fries... and tots and...

    Wow!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That is a lot of potatoes. Be good this winter. Those Yukon Golds are fine eating potatoes. Never tried those purple one. Bet they all will be delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fantastic harvest! We got three or four, not pounds, just three or four potatoes! LOL Looks good.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dar had called and offered us some too but we declined, as we had just bought potatoes and we don't eat nearly as many as we used to. But dang, they look great!
    Missing you too!
    'love & hugs from afar'

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well my taters sure didn't turn out like THAT this year. Small and scabby ... those were mine. I ended up buying some.

    ReplyDelete