The Last of the Potato Harvest

Before I moved back to the mountains last summer I had a small backyard garden in Illinois.  Though I knew that I couldn't take my garden with me, I did my best to harvest what I could in the few weeks before the move.  One of my biggest crops turned out to be my potato harvest.

I had planted three different varieties of potato : Red Norland, Yukon Gold, and Adirondak Blue.  The Yukon Gold produced the largest of the three varieties, and the Adirondak Blue produced the greatest quantity of good sized potatos.  All three have been making up a fair portion of my diet since early August when I harvested them. 

The Red Norlands were the first to start sprouting where I kept them in cloth bags in my darkened pantry.  The large Yukon Golds tended to become hollow in storage and I sadly had to discard many because they started to rot from the inside out.  The best keepers by far were the Adirondak Blues which made me happy because I had so many of them and they were so tasty.

I am quite happy that I have been able to eat home grown potatos for the past six months, but sadly that will come to an end in the next few days.  I am down to my last small, wrinkly Red Norlands and will soon have to buy my potatos from the dreaded grocery store.  At least I had a good run, and in a few more months I will be planting the next round of potatos in my new garden.