In order to reap, one must sow
The humble potato. For all its monotony, we do enjoy the taste and texture. I don’t eat (them) as often as I should, but right now I’m more fascinated by the process required to actually get them into the ground and started.
As I mentioned a few days back, this is the year for “my field”. Once things had thawed out and dried up sufficiently, the plough came in and broke ground. Then, earlier this week, the disc harrow turned the lumps into lumplets. Yesterday, some sort of rakish affair further reduced the soil to a uniform layer.
Today, the big job is underway, and the machinery is here. The process has gone on, all day; in fact, as we head towards darkness, the team is still out there. Right now, the machinery mix looks like this. I watched them put the fertilizer granules about beforehand, and then the pieces of potatoes were brought over by heavy truck. Yes, we don’t seed potatoes. Instead, we cut “seed potatoes” into small chunks, containing eyes. Each piece will, in ideal terms, bring forth a plant through the summer, and next fall the harvester will be sent in to gather (as near as I can tell) a small bag’s worth of potatoes. Good return on investment.
All through the summer, there’ll be periodic spraying sessions (blight abatement), and at some point a machine will “hill” the furrows. Not sure how that works, so I’ll watch from the relative comfort of my kitchen. Where, eventually, I’ll turn potatoes into supper.
