We’re planting potatoes this week.  Alex and Anna turned the soil last week in preparation for the process which, along with setting up the drip irrigation lines for half the beds will mean a busy week at Cornman Farm.  We have about 1000 pounds of seed potatoes, a mix of Kennebecs, Red Pontiacs, German Butterballs and Russet Burbanks.

  Royer Held from Project Grow is also starting from seed several special Bolivian varieties that he will grow out at the farm.  This collaboration with Royer is a great project to help him maintain his stock of potatoes and a way to help someone in the community, but I gotta tell ya, I’m also excited about it for selfish reasons.  As someone interested in heirloom veggies I get excited about something that has a history dating back maybe a hundred years or so.  But these are UBER heirlooms - spuds from the cradle of potatoes, the food of the Incas, not a 100 year history but thousands of years!  It will be interesting to watch them grow and see what they’re like in September or October when we harvest them.

The area for the potatoes is big, I keep on thinking in terms of a football field.  Its a little shorter and less wide but think of the Big House field covered with potato plants instead of grass and white lines.  The planting process involves making furrows with a plow equipped with metal disks and walking down the rows dropping a seed potato every foot.  Then we change the angle on the disks and run the plow down the rows to bury the potatoes.  This all requires very straight rows so we’re not chopping up the spuds and ruining the crop.  Alex, who has the most tractor driving expertise will likely be tackling this job.  So I’ll let you know next week how we did.