From: Brandie Rugh aka bugbite Potatoes You can buy seed potatoes ( ‘taters picked last year before they were matured) from a gardening center or mail order catalog. There are many different kinds, 5000 varieties in all. The reds I usually buy are Red Pontiac and the whites are Kennebec. But there are some with white insides, yellow insides and even blue insides. There are early, mid-season and late season varieties. The early kind are ready in 60 - 90 days, the midseason are harvestable in 90 - 115 days and the late guys are 115 - 140 days. Spuds are cool weather lovers which is why some of you may have trouble growing them in areas that get a really hot summer. Gardeners in these areas need to get a early to midseason variety and get them out of the ground before really hot weather arrives. Intense heat slows potato growth and the poor things stop making tubers. Diseases like hollow heart and pests like beetles and aphids can be a problem in those areas. Try a super early variety like Caribe, Red Norland, or Onaway. Red Gold or Yukon Gold will work too and have delicious yellow flesh. You should harvest spuds in late may or early June when us northern gardeners are just getting started. Some books recommend cutting large spuds with lots of eyes, but I think this invites disease. JMHO. My seed is stored over from last year and has lots of sprouts. I think these do better, if you can let your seed sprout for two weeks before planting you’ll get more ‘taters. Potatoes aren’t picky about the soil and do best if planted about 10 to 14 inches apart, but I have cheated and put them 8 inches apart with pretty good luck. Mulch is the most important secret. I dig a trench about 18 inches deep. Plant my seed 4 inches below that. Then as the plant grow, mulch all but the top two or three inches of the plants, keep pushing the dirt up to the stems and adding lots of mulch even to the point of creating hills around the plants. Which is why this is called hilling. The stems will send off roots and make more spuds for you. I find that inter-planting with onions will deter some pests. When it’s time to harvest , dig very carefully and don’t nick the spuds. Don’t wash them either, just allow to air dry and brush the dirt off very gently. Store in a cool place. Do not eat the green parts or any green potatoes. But you can plant green spuds next year. Oh, and I do pick off the flowers as I want the plant energy in the roots. Another method is to plant on top of the soil. If your soil is really bad or digging is hard for you, you can just toss your starter spuds on top of some mulch and cover them with 10 to 12 inches of fresh hay. Keep adding more mulch as the season progresses. When your ready to harvest just pull back the hay and pick up the spuds. If you want to try the method mentioned on Skully’s website but you don’t have a barrel. You can do the same thing with some chicken wire and burlap or an old sheet. Form a circle out of the chicken wire, wrap the entire container in the burlap. Put six inches of soil and compost in the bottom. Place two or three seed potatoes on top of that, then cover it all with 4 more inches of soil and compost. Each week for the next six weeks put another layer of soil and mulch on top. Water twice a week (if it doesn’t rain) to maintain even moisture, and feed your spud cage with compost tea every three weeks. When the foliage dies down your spuds are ready to harvest. Just open up the side and the potatoes fall out, no digging, and no damage to the tubers with the shovel. Potatoes can be frozen, pressure canned or dehydrated. They store very well in a cool basement or root cellar. To freeze them: Wash, peel and blanche for 6 minutes. To can them: Wash potatoes and boil or steam until partially soft (15 to 20 minutes). Remove skins. Cut medium potatoes, if needed, so that pieces are uniform in size. Caution: Do not mash or puree pieces. Fill jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add ½ teaspoon salt to each pint jar or 1/3 teaspoon per half-pint, if desired. Cover with fresh boiling water or sugar syrup, leaving 1-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process at 10 PSI in a weighted gauge canner or 11 PSI in a dial gauge canner. Remember to adjust this for your altitude. To dehydrate: Wash, peel and either slice to 1/8 slices or into shoestring strips. Blanche for 3 minutes and dehydrate until crunchy. **************************************************************** If you need to store cucumbers for a day or two until you have enough for a batch of pickles. Don’t refrigerate them. They’re tropical like tomatoes and bananas and begin to deteriorate at temperatures below 50 degrees. A cool basement or root cellar is better. ************************ Root maggots may be repelled by a mulch of oak leaves *********************************** Grow grains... Millet makes a wonderful cooked cereal, and amaranth is very versatile. The leaves are edible, the seeds can be cooked into a cereal, ground into flour or popped like popcorn. Both must be dried in the sun and winnowed to remove the chafe. Once dried they store from year to year just fine. Both are fairly drought tolerant, and amaranth really likes the heat of summer. Millet is sold as bird food, but the seeds are viable. Amaranth is available from Shumways and Seeds of Change. ***************** Edible Flowers Many plants have edible flowers which will brighten any meal. Some, like Daylilies and Squash Blossoms, are cooked as vegetables, while others can be used to top off a summer salad. A sampling of edible flowers is provided below. Bon appetit! Borage (Borago officinalis) Calendula (Calendula officinalis) Chamomile (Matricaria recutita or M. chamomilla) Chives (Allium schoenprasum) Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum spp.) Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis) Daylily (Hemerocallis spp.) English Daisy (Bellis perennis) Gladiolas (Gladiolas spp.) Hops (Humulus lupulus) Lavender (Lavandula officinalis) Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) Mallow (Malva neglecta) Marigold (Tagetes spp.) Mariposa Lily (Caloshortus macrocarpus) Mustard (Brassica spp.) Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) Pansy (Viola spp.) Primrose (Primula vulgaris) Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) Rose (Rosa spp.) Squash Blossom (Cucurbita spp.) Viola (Viola spp.) Yucca (Yucca spp.) Zinnia (Zinnia spp.)