Picking the Season's Potatoes
I am looking forward to sharing this season's bounty of potatoes with my family.
This week, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, and my longtime housekeeper, Laura Acuna, harvested the potatoes. Potatoes are from the perennial nightshade Solanum tuberosum. As the world's fourth-largest food crop, following maize, wheat, and rice, potatoes are grown from “seed potatoes”, which are certified disease-free and specially grown in nurseries for planting purposes. Many of this season’s “seed potatoes” came from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, a small family-owned business in Ellensburg, Washington. We harvested lots of potatoes in a variety of different colors and shapes. I'm looking forward to sharing them with Alexis, Jude, Truman and our many friends this fall.
Enjoy these photos.
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- It’s become a tradition for Ryan and Laura to pick potatoes together every year. With three full beds planted, there are plenty of potatoes to pick.
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- For this task, Ryan uses Johnny’s Selected Seeds nine-tine, 20-inch wide broadfork. These deep-tillage tools, designed long ago in Europe and redeveloped by Eliot Coleman, make turning the soil almost effortless because it uses body weight to insert and maneuver the tool.
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- The best time to dig up potatoes is on a dry day once all the vines have died back. This means, when the tubers are done growing, and the potato plants have begun to turn yellow and withered. This year, because of all the wet weather, the vines still appeared green in many places, but the crop was ready for harvest.
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- Ryan gently turns the soil with the broadfork. It’s important to dig them up carefully, so as not to puncture any of the tubers.
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- Ryan starts away from the potatoes and works his way in to safely turn over the soil. Then slowly he turns up the broadfork – if you look closely, you can already see a potato… or two.
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- Laura manually begins digging for the potatoes. She feels for them underground – potatoes will be slightly cool to the touch.
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- Within minutes, there are potatoes everywhere.
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- It’s fun to dig around the soil and find multiple potatoes waiting to be picked.
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- The tubers form around the base of each plant among the roots. Native to the Andes of South America, the potato has become the world’s fourth-largest food crop, following rice, wheat, and maize.
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- Laura helps by placing the potatoes in shallow crates, separated by color. An entire potato plant grows from just one potato eye, although when planting, always plant a piece of potato with at least two eyes to ensure germination.
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- It’s easy to see how the potatoes are connected to the plant at the root area. They’re very easy to pull off, and often come loose by themselves while digging around them. Leave any green potatoes alone. When potatoes are exposed to light, they turn green, a sign the toxic substance called solanine is developing, which may cause illness if eaten in large quantities.
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- Ryan continues to feel for potatoes. Here is a perfect potato – round, well colored with no holes or bruises.
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- The plants were not planted too deeply – all the potatoes were buried within the top five-inches of soil. Every variety yielded a good amount of potatoes.
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- Don’t leave harvested potatoes in the sun as excessive heat could cause them to cook. Just brush off as much soil as possible and let them dry in a cool place.
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- Many of these are Red Norland potatoes which produce medium to large tubers with smooth, thin, red skin and shallow eyes, and white flesh. These are known to be very flavorful.
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- Ryan’s Non-Slip Grip Garden Gloves from my collection on QVC continue to hold up – they’re so durable and great for many different chores around the house and garden.
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- Some of the potatoes are grey to almost purple in color. Many of these are large fingerling shaped tubers with an excellent earthy flavor and waxy texture.
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- All the crates of potatoes are ready to go up to my flower room, where they will be stored until ready to cook.
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- Typically, potatoes should not be washed until they are ready to cook, but this season’s harvest was very muddy from all the rain we’ve had here in the Northeast. Once in the Flower Room, Sanu gave all the potatoes a quick rinse.
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- These All Red potatoes are medium to large tubers with smooth, brilliant red skin, medium shallow eyes and pink swirled flesh that retains its color after cooking. Like most reds, this variety is good for steaming or boiling and makes an attractive potato salad.
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- Once the potatoes are washed, they’re placed on large towels and then dried.
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- Carlos then returns them to the crates – each one on a stainless steel tray. These potatoes will continue to dry out here in my Flower Room.
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- Ideally, potatoes should be kept in an environment around 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit. They can be stored in bins, boxes, or even paper bags – just nothing air tight to prevent rotting. And, don’t store with apples – the ethylene gas will cause the potatoes to spoil. In addition, they should never be stored in the refrigerator. We have so many potatoes – I can’t wait to try them all.
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