Friday, January 9, 2009

Seed Potatoes Now?

This is the last of our Purple Viking potatoes. These potatoes with their red and purple skins and pure white flesh are almost too pretty to eat. These look like they are ready to plant, but it's January.They are on the menu for tonight.

We do not have the perfect conditions for potato storage. The basement is heated enough to be too warm for them. Given proper storage they would not look like this until spring. If you look closely, you can see we have a problem with scab. The plain fact is that Ed's garden beds enriched with three year old compost and even older old manure are too good for potatoes. They prefer new soil. We still have more to learn about growing better potatoes.

I love it when I can leave the skins on when I cook these colorful potatoes. However I would rather cut off the bad spots and take off the sprouts knowing that they indicate a lack of chemicals. In this case I prefer the imperfections.

Since we don't have the perfect storage conditions for potatoes, we buy new seed every year. I must look for that potato catalog. Ordering seed potatoes is definitely up next!

2 comments:

tina said...

They are such a pretty color!

Anonymous said...

They surely are a pretty potato. We're in the same boat here in our apartment -- there really isn't an area that's cool enough to store anything, outside of the crisper in the fridge. :)