Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes
If you remember this spring I was talking about having potatoes coming out my ears if all my potatoes did well. I finally harvested all the potatoes from the garden with the ‘Kennebec’ being the last ones. I was pleasantly suprised at the size of these potatoes. When I planted them this spring only about half of the potatoes came up, so I bought some more and planted them, about a month after the original ones were planted. The original ones sized up into HUGE tubers, with the ones planted later being about the size of our ‘Yukon Gold’ potatoes. I can’t imagine how many pounds I would have gotten if they had all started from the beginning.
I ended up with a harvest of around 200 pounds of potatoes for the winter. Of course I’m giving some to my mom since we planted most of them in her garden, but she also gave me some of her ‘Yukon Gold’ potatoes. I’m very pleased with our harvest, the best part is that potatoes need nothing but to be stored in a cardboard box in the basement, no canning, no freezing, no time/energy used for preservation.
A couple weeks before harvesting the ‘Kennebec’ potatoes, my mom and I harvested the fingerling potatoes. I wasn’t sure how the fingerlings would do, I assumed they would produce a smaller yield, but I was amazed when they outproduced every other kind of potato we planted. ‘La Ratta’ was the most productive potato in the garden, and I’m quite happy since they’re quite delicious and the perfect size I think, no cutting required, just wash, toss with olive oil and roast. I planted 2 varieties:
La Ratta: Long prized by French chefs as a top quality fingerling. We cannot recommend this variety highly enough, an absolute delight to cook with. Long uniform tubers, yellow flesh with firm, waxy texture and a nice nutty flavor, holds together very well. Especially good for potato salad or as a boiled potato. Commands a high price both in the restaurant and fresh market trade. 100-120 days.
French Fingerling: This is a wonderful variety! The rose-colored skin covers its creamy yellow flesh. Very versatile and good for any style of preparation. Peeling is not necessary or recommended. Rumored to have been smuggled to America in a horse’s feedbag in the 1800s. 90-110 days.
I will definitely be growing fingerling potatoes again, especially ‘La Ratta’ since they were the most productive. I’ll also be definitely grow: ‘Kennebec’, ‘All-Red’, and ‘Purple Viking’. I’ll probably try a few new varieties next year since that’s one of the reasons I garden, to try new things. I’m sure that my garden will always have a nice space devoted to the lowly potato.
Do you grow potatoes? How was your harvest this year?
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Working on the Fall Garden
Yesterday I spent the day at my mom’s planting the fall cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and leeks. They’re a tad late because my first batch of broccoli got eaten by slugs, so I started another flat in the basement. After tearing out the zucchini and green beans and amending the area I harvested potatoes from last week, we got everything planted. At least half of her garden is now planted in fall crops including the carrots, peas and beets that we direct seeded last month.
Let’s hope all these grow well and we don’t get an early fall frost (which we sometimes do here in Ohio). I’m thinking of having Mr Chiots help me make some of those hoops that we can use in her garden to cover crops if needed. Fall gardening is interesting, since I’ve never really done a lot of it I’m not sure how things will grow. I’m hoping as the years go by I’ll get better at it and have a better idea of how things behave compared to summer gardening. I’ll keep you posted on how things do in my fall garden.
How’s your fall garden coming?
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Make Your Own: Infused Oils
Along with using plantain as a quick treatment for bug bites and other wounds, I’m also trying to make some plantain essential oil so I can make a beeswax salve to carry with me. Then when I’m out and about I can still have access to it’s therapeutic benefits. I decided I would try to make some plantain essential oil here at home instead of purchasing it, so I read a few articles on making essential oils at home. These are different than distilled oils that you buy which are much more concentrated. Since I don’t have a home still, so I’ll be making oils that are infused with herbs not the distilled essential oils.
I read a few articles and each had different methods of making essential oils, different amounts of herbs were used in each recipe. I made mine by using a combination of all the recipes I read. I didn’t want to make a whole cup of oil as I thought I wouldn’t be able to use it up quickly, so I made a half cup. I simply chopped up 3 Tablespoons of fresh plantain and put them in a small jar and topped it with 1/2 cup of good organic olive oil (you can use other types of oil if you’d like, I happen to always have olive oil on hand).
Some recipes called for the heating of the oil and herbs, some simply called for steeping for a few days in a warm spot then removing the spent herbs and adding fresh herbs every couple days. I’m opting for this non-heating method. I’ve been steeping the herbs on my kitchen windowsill and will be refreshing the herbs a few times until the oil smells strongly of plantain. If the weather gets too cold, I may warm the oil occasionally is a pan of water, but only until slightly warm, not too much heat as I’m thinking this may damage some of the benefits of the herbs.
When it’s finished I plan on putting it in an amber bottle with an eye dropper. This winter I’ll experiment in making salves with beeswax that I’ll be able to carry around in a little tin, I’ll be sure to blog about it when I do. I’m also looking forward to making more essential oils, I bought a tea tree plant this spring and I’m hoping to make tea tree oil next, as we use a lot of tea tree oil here at Chiot’s Run.
Have you ever made essential oils at home? Do you use essential oils often?
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Quick Herbal Bug Bite Salve
Several years ago I read about the wonders of Broad Leaved Plantain, a “weed” that grows everywhere. It’s also known as: Bird’s Meat, Common Plantain, Great Plantain, Rat-tail Plantain, White Man’s Foot.
I have it growing all over the garden and I’m quite happy about it. It comes in very handy when I’m out working late and get bit by mosquitoes or if I get stung by a bee.
All you have to do for a quick salve is grab a leaf or two, chew them up and apply them to the bug bite. I often do this while I’m out working if I need to, but I prefer to make a poultice with some baking soda as it stays on better and I think it works better. (as with all wild plants, make sure you know exactly what you’re picking & using!)
What I usually do is take a few leaves, cut them finely, add a pinch or two of baking soda and a little water. Then I grind them to a wet paste in my mortar & pestle and apply to the bug bite. It instantly works to get rid of the itch or sting and keeps it coming back.
This salve is also very beneficial for using on cuts and scrapes, I often add some turmeric and comfrey when I’m using it for this purpose as turmeric helps with inflammation and pain and comfrey speeds healing.
Plantain has medicinal uses of all sorts: bites, cuts, scrapes, rashes, skin problems, intestinal pain & issues, worms, boils, bronchitis, coughs, colitis, hemorrhoids, diarrhea, dysentery, vomiting, bed wetting and incontinence and many other things (for more info read this and this). I have yet to use it internally, but I use it often for bug bites, stings and cuts. I’m trying to make plantain oil for using medicinally. Since it’s an herb with no known side-effects I definitely want to try using it more often.
Have you ever used plantain? Do you use herbs/weeds for medicinal purposes?
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The Late Summer Garden
It’s can be difficult to find plants that bloom and look nice this time of year. After a long hot humid NE Ohio summer, most plants are looking a little crispy and quite sad. Our lack rain, along with the dry lean soil makes plants look peaked in late August early September. There are a few things that still look stunning and a few things that are starting to come into their season to shine.
The woodland sunflower ‘Helianthus divaricatus’ is blooming along the woodland edge by my garage. It’s quite a lovely wild flower, it really brightens up this shady part of the garden. I must save seeds for this and try to propagate it along the edges of the woods along the entire property.
I’m completely in love with my fuzzy oregano, which is also referred to as the hops flowering oregano, can you see why? The blooms are quite stunning compared to my regular Greek oregano.
The ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea is in it’s top form at the moment. I love it when the blossoms turn this beautiful shade of green, one of my favorite flower colors.
The cosmos are blooming as well, they are volunteers that grew from some cosmos that went to seed last year at the end of the season. They will continue to look good until they’re killed by a heavy frost.
I’m absolutely loving the combo of my fall blooming sedum with the asparagus fern in the front foundation garden. It’s quite a beautiful combo of textures. The sedum will continue to change color and will look beautiful throughout the fall months. I must add more of this to my gardens.
Flowering kale is a wonderful addition to any garden, it will look good long after everything else has died back.
What are you loving in your garden right now?
