Potatoes!

One of the things I enjoy a lot about this time of year is harvest time. About a couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to help my sister do some yard work and harvest her potatoes. She was growing some potatoes that she had bought at the store and did not get around to eating. They ended up sprouting so she decided to plant them to see if she could grow more potatoes.

I decided to do a little research on potatoes…Potatoes are reported as being the world’s fourth largest food crop. Rice, wheat and corn take the first three spots. Potatoes are thought to have first been cultivated around 8,000 B.C. by the Inca Indians in Peru. During the conquest of Peru, the Spanish Conquistadors discovered the flavors of the potato and are reported as bringing them back to Europe.

Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the potato to Ireland in 1589 on his estate at Myrtle Grove, Youghal near Cork. He reportedly also made a gift of the potato plant to Queen Elizabeth. It took about 40 years for the potato to spread to the rest of Europe but eventually were found to be easier to grow than other staple crops and could feed more people per acre.

This was an interesting activity. It was interesting to see how many potatoes grew from her “starts” and if this was an effective way to grow potatoes. We decided to pull the plants, dump the bag on a tarp and then sift the dirt to located any potatoes. We found a decent amount of potatoes had grown. This was a surprisingly fun activity. I got to spend some time with my sister and it became a bit of a competition to see who could find the most potatoes.

Our conclusions were that (1) potatoes could be grown from store bought potatoes and (2) growing potatoes in a bag makes harvesting the potatoes quite a bit easier — as the bag holds the potatoes and one can be certain that no potatoes are missed.