Glittery Potatoes

My kiddo planted potatoes over the weekend. She adds glitter to everything she plants. This year, the potatoes are Kennebecs.

Spuds are Normal This Year

Dug up some of the potatoes so my daughter could enter hers in the Western Idaho Fair. They look totally normal this year. It took some extra TLC with our extreme temperatures and dry spell. Last year, we didn't pay close attention and wound up with some multi-spud head specimens.

Potato Planting WITH Glitter

 Potatoes were prepped and planted this week. My kiddo is in charge of spud gardening. She sprinkles glitter on the potatoes before putting them in their mounds. Our planting is a little late this year, so here's hoping for three, perfect-looking potatoes in time for the Western Idaho Fair. Aviana planted Russet Norkotahs. The key to beautiful spuds is even watering - which can be a challenge if we get into a streak of 100-degree weather.

Potato Harvest

Sixteen pounds so far. One more plant to go, as soon as the vines have withered. Boy, some STRANGE looking specimens this year. I'll feature a potato fashion show later this week.

Potato Blossoms

Potato blossoms are similar in appearance to tomato blossoms, although, of course, potatoes don't grow from these blooms. The plants are related, though.

Flamingos in the Potatoes

These two potato plants are russets - the "standard" Idaho tater.

A Volunteer Potato Plant?

I guess I missed a spud during last year's harvest. The blue is tulle that protected the snow peas I'm growing in this bed this year...along with the "volunteer" potato.

Planting Potatoes with Glitter

Added some sparkle to encourage these spuds to grow. We dug a slight depression in the soil, tossed in the seed potatoes, sprinkled glitter, and then piled soil on top. As soon as they start to emerge, we'll pile more soil on top. This makes it easier to find the potatoes at harvest time.

We Grew Potatoes...in IDAHO!

The first round of harvesting. I have two other mystery potato plants that aren't ready yet. I *think* these are Yukon golds. Potatoes are ready to harvest about a week after the vines die down.

Potato Blossom

The potatoes are blooming. Soon, we'll be able to harvest a few "new potatoes" from the base of each plant. The big spuds won't be ready until the plants die back.

Potatoes: Check

A check on one of the potato plants...looking good. Mini zinnias in the foreground, and the other "greens" are amaranthus.

Potatoes

The cool spring delayed the potato growth. Fingers crossed we'll still be able to harvest some gems this fall.

Digging Up Spuds

We dug up a few potatoes from the garden beds to make mashed potatoes this week. There are many more to dig this week!

Idaho Potatoes

Potato plants are coming along :)