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You Say Potato

August 27th, 2014

I’ve been slowly harvesting my potatoes.  This year I didn’t plant as many as I did last year, only enough for us to eat throughout the winter.  There are a few varieties, most are ready to be dug.  The ‘Purple Majesty’ and ‘Mountain Rose’ are all out of the ground, both produced quite prolifically this year.  I’m very pleased with the results.
potato harvest 1
The ‘Purple Viking’ never cease to impress me with their yield. The photo below is the yield from one single seed potato – one. This variety is well known for being highly productive, in fact, it’s so productive that you have to space them close at planting time or you will end up with giant potatoes the size of footballs. I’m not kidding either, every now and then one gets planted farther away from the rest, or the ones on the ends of the rows are gigantic.
potato harvest 2
If I could only grow one variety of potato it would be ‘Purple Viking’. It’s a great potato for steaming, boiling, baking or mashing, and it fries up like a dream with a crispy exterior and a soft middle. It will store long into the spring without losing crispness. Overall it’s a winner if you only have a small space for growing spuds.

What’s your favorite way to eat potatoes?

11 Comments to “You Say Potato”
  1. Lemongrass on August 27, 2014 at 5:17 am

    great harvest. Am experimenting with growing sweet potatoes in a bag. So far they are growing as expected.
    Enjoy your harvest.

    Reply to Lemongrass's comment

  2. Patti on August 27, 2014 at 5:58 am

    I had been wondering which potato would fill that bill, so ‘Purple Viking’ it is for me next year! I was thinking about planting them in 1/2 bushel baskets. It seems like they would do well, don’t you think? Glad you’re feeling better. Have a nice day!

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  3. Rhonda on August 27, 2014 at 8:08 am

    I love fried potatoes with onions. It’s truly my comfort food.

    I didn’t plant any potatoes this year, or much of anything else for that matter since I was out of the country a couple of times. Next year though, I’m planting Purple Viking! I’ll probably plant Bintje and Kennebec again too and a red potato I had good luck with. I can’t remember the name. I’ll have to check my records. I want to say it was Norland, but I’m not sure. Anyhoo … congratulations on your harvest!!

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  4. Nebraska Dave on August 27, 2014 at 8:30 am

    Susy, glad to see you are up and around again. There’s nothing worse than being under the weather during gardening season. I’m not back to full strength just yet but I’m getting there. Your potatoes look wonderful. I haven’t started digging mine up just yet. I usually wait longer than I should before digging them but it doesn’t seem to hurt them to stay in the ground a little longer.

    My favorite way to eat potatoes would be cut up in chunks and boiled with skin on. Then when semi soft, fried with onions, garlic power, and a generous sprinkle of Mrs. Dash. It’s a little more work than straight up frying but well worth it. My next way to fix potatoes would be chunky thick potato soup. That’s pretty awesome with a sprinkling of bacon bits on it. Potatoes are my favorite vegetable hands down.

    Have a great potato storing day.

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  5. kristin @ going country on August 27, 2014 at 8:31 am

    Oh man, do I ever love potatoes, every way there is. We finally started piecemeal harvesting about a month ago, ending a long month with no potatoes at all.

    It’s hard to pick a favorite way, but I really look forward to potatoes fried with my eggs in the morning. Eggs are way better when accompanied by potatoes,

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  6. Misti on August 27, 2014 at 9:27 am

    We’e yet to have a great potato harvest, usually just recuping what we planted. I have a few small tomatoes left that we’ll eat this week to make room in the fridge.

    Someday we’ll figure out a potato harvest!

    Reply to Misti's comment

  7. Terri on August 27, 2014 at 11:27 am

    My husband loves to dig some new potatoes and slice them to fry in some bacon grease with some onions. He also loves to do them as salt potatoes. We grow several varieties, but I think that my favorite one is called Eva. They store quite well into the spring.

    Reply to Terri's comment

  8. Susan Ingle on August 27, 2014 at 1:46 pm

    Susy if it’s a potato, then I’m there. My mom even made mashed potato fondant rolled out and slathered with peanut butter, rolled and sliced into pinwheel candies at Christmas.
    I love spuds cooked in every way, But when I’m wanting them and don’t want to do much prep I just scrub them, cut into wedges, put them in a bag with bottled vinegar based salad dressing (balsamic, or italian), shake them up and season to taste, dump them on a foil lined rimmed baking sheet, into the oven at 450 for maybe 20-25 minutes.
    Delicioso!

    Reply to Susan Ingle's comment

  9. Maybelline on August 28, 2014 at 4:17 am

    Glad you’re back after it.
    My favorite comfort food is mashed potatoes. Mmmmm.
    French fries and catsup/ketchup is one of my all time favorites.

    Reply to Maybelline's comment

  10. Eliza J on August 28, 2014 at 6:00 am

    Garden potatoes are the best for sure! As I am about to harvest our potatoes, just wondering how you store yours?

    Reply to Eliza J's comment

  11. Laura Damron on August 28, 2014 at 10:59 am

    Glad you’re feeling better, Susy! I’m so happy to see that someone out there is getting a good potato yield- mine look to be disappointing again this year. I was experimenting with growing them in bins, but so far the results don’t looks great. I should have planted some backup hills! My favorite way to eat potatoes is au gratin- specifically, my Dad’s recipe. :)

    Reply to Laura Damron's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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