Potatoes, spuds, taters, whatever you like to call them, originated from South America. According to Wikipedia, there are a stunning 5,000 different varieties across the world today! Planting potatoes is really not that tricky, but you have to start somewhere, and the “somewhere” might be in selecting which variety you want to grow. The selection is great; -5,000 types, remember? Well, really now, only a very small fraction of these varieties are in reality available to us, and  for the most part you only need to worry about which characteristics you want to focus on: Do you want a so-called white potato, red-skin, baking potato, or perhaps a beautiful, yellow Yukon? These taters are all quite different from each other, and some of the main differences are the content of starch versus water. White and red-skin potatoes contain a lot of water and sugar (but are low on starch), and are ideal for soups and stews, and also for potato salads, as they hold their shape well when they are done cooking. For mashing, however, you’ll want a different variety, because potatoes high in water makes for soggy mash. You can’t add much milk as they already contain so much moisture. That brings me to baking potatoes (same as Russet or Idaho), which is the ideal potato for mashing because they are starchy and low in water. Therefore, you can add plenty of milk and get that nice, creamy [...] Read more »

  I have grown potatoes for only two seasons so far, but in that process I have absolutely fallen in love with this rewarding crop! It’s my favorite of all the different vegetables I have grown! I mean, what is there not to love about it? Really! Just look at this one: In this post, Part 1 of 4 total,  I will touch on some general information regarding growing potatoes, and share some of my own experiences. In the upcoming parts, which will be posted in the near future, I will discuss choosing potatoes and preparation for planting in Part 2; the planting and growing of potatoes, and alternative methods in Part 3; and in Part 4, harvesting and storage. This plant is a little bit different from other vegetable plants, but once you know what to do, you will find that they really are quite easy to grow, and the excitement is on an all-time high once harvest time comes along! Once they are ready to be harvested, we usually dig only what’s needed for that day’s dinner. I’ll typically send one of the kids out to the garden come dinner time, or I’ll go myself with a pitch fork. Fresh out of the ground, the potatoes are firm and crisp like a fresh apple; in fact, in certain areas of Norway, they sometimes call potatoes “earth apples.” Perhaps from the crispness of the freshly dug potatoes, closely resembling [...] Read more »