Fall Spuds: The Good and the Bad

Earlier this fall, IN THIS POST we introduced an experiment we were trying for the first time: Fall potatoes in pots.  We'd never done this before as we normally plant them in the ground.  This year, I figured, due to lack of space in the garden, we would plant in pots.  This would enable us to move the pots in the event of an early frost.  We learned that lesson from an early freeze years before in which we lost our crop before they were ready.  

We harvested all of our potatoes this past week.  We'll show you the results today.  If you click the link above, you'll note that we planted 12 potatoes that we had stored successfully from the spring crop.  Those 12 potatoes were planted in 12 landscape pots under rich mulch that had composted down from 3 year old wood chip mulch.  I incorporated some composted chicken litter from the hen house for fertilizer.

Here is one of the plants we harvested.  You'll notice a brown material right at the base of the plant.  Those are coffee grounds.  I'll tell you a little story about that.  We read somewhere a natural remedy for fire ants is to spread some used coffee grounds.  The grounds provide compost as well as repel fire ants.  Or so they say.  This did NOT work in our Potato Pots.  It may have even caffeinated them, making them more aggressive in reproduction and growth. 

Back to the potato harvest.  I simply turned the pots over in a wagon to capture the mulch and then sifted through the mulch to pull out the potatoes.  (This resulted in being bit by the ants numerous times.)  Here are a few of the potatoes:

They were nice looking, new potatoes and we'll eat them up.  The photo below shows you the extensive fire any colony that was in the bottom of the pot.  The fire ants are always looking for high ground.  In times of rain and wet soil, the highest ground proved to be the soil in our Potato Pots.  We'll have to think this through better next time.

Here are a few more of the potatoes that we harvested as they are shown stored on our drying wagon.  This allows air flow to get around them and it is shady and cool, perfect conditions to store potatoes.

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I wish I would have weighed or counted the potatoes, but I forgot.  I was hoping for a better yield.  Oh, we definitely got more than the 12 potatoes that we planted, but if I had to guess, I'd say we got 36 nice sized potatoes and a bunch more small ones.  If I would have waited a couple more weeks, the small ones you see may have grown to golf-ball sized potatoes, but the ant infestation made me wonder if there were even going to be any potatoes.  In hindsight, I should have waited until the plants died or frost killed them.  In summary, a disappointing harvest, but we'll do it again next fall.  I have another nine months or so to learn about killing fire ants without pesticides.  It's probably not a good idea to eat potatoes laced with Amdro or Spectracide.  We've tried boiling water as an organic fire ant mound treatment option.  That works, but it would also kill the potato plants.

What Kind of Flower is This?

While I was doing my evening chores something yellow caught my eye.  It was a strikingly beautiful flower beneath the Confederate Jasmine.  The filament and anther portions (remember high school biology?) seemed to almost glow with brightness.  Can you guess what type flower this is?

Beautiful

Backing up the picture a bit, I'll give you a hint as we see three flowers on the plant in different stages of bloom.  If you look closely, you can see part of the plant that is a dead giveaway to tell you that the flower is from a...

PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS!  I don't recall where the cactus came from, but it keeps growing and growing.  Fortunately, cacti don't need much water, because I forget to water it.  It is just watered by rainfall, but yet it thrives right there tucked between the air conditioning unit and the jasmine.

It is planted in an old terra cotta frog planter that I inherited from my grandmother. After reading the following from Wikipedia, I think I'm going to make sure that this cactus stays within the confines of the terra cotta frog!:

Prickly pears (mostly Opuntia stricta) were originally imported into Australia in the 18th century for gardens, and were later used as a natural agricultural fencing and in an attempt to establish a cochineal dye industry. They quickly became a widespread invasive weed, eventually converting 101,000 sq mi (260,000 km2) of farming land into an impenetrable green jungle of prickly pear, in places 20 ft (6.1 m) high. Scores of farmers were driven off their land by what they called the "green hell"; their abandoned homes were crushed under the cactus growth, which advanced at a rate of 1,000,000 acres (4,046.9 km2; 1,562.5 sq mi) per year.

I certainly don't want to be forced off my land by the "green hell."  It wouldn't make me very popular with the neighbors, either!

Keep it contained, frog!

Okay here's another one for you.  I snapped this photo on the same day as it was blooming on the back patio.  It has very distinctive looking flowers.  Do you know what plant this flower is from?

Well, it's from the Aloe Vera.  We keep a huge plant on our back patio and it gets used from time to time on burns or skin irritations.  The plant multiplies like crazy and produces 'pups' on the side of the main plant. I need to divide them and re-pot them into separate containers as this one is quickly outgrowing its pot.

The 'mother' aloe vera with 'pups'

Last but not least, I was checking out the garden and saw this.  What plant produces this flower?

This is the flower of the potato plant and it blooms toward the end of the plants' growth cycle.  It basically is a signal that lets you know that it is about time to start digging potatoes.  Funny thing about it, is that usually the flowers dry up and fall off, but sometimes, they'll form something that looks like a small tomato.  This is the true fruit of the potato plant, but they're not edible.

The potatoes definitely are and we'll be digging them up real soon! 

Making Hearty Potato Soup

We had a few lonely potatoes left from our fall crop.  Note to self: plant more potatoes next year, both in the Spring and in the Fall.  With chilly weather and the kids in from college and Russ unable to eat anything but soup due to having his wisdom teeth removed, soup was on the menu - Hearty Potato Soup.

We peeled and cut up the remaining homegrown potatoes and had to buy some potatoes from the store to supplement the ones we grew.  I think it ended up being 7 or 8 medium sized potatoes that we peeled, cut, and added to the pot along with some homegrown sweet corn that we thawed out.  We boiled it in salted water along with a half cup of cut up onions. We cooked for about 20 minutes until the potatoes were softened.

The boiling pot

We took a potato masher and mashed up the potatoes and then cut the corn off the cob.  In a separate pot we added 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter with 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour and made a roux, but didn't allow it to brown - just until bubbly.  Then we added to the soup.  Finally we added milk and cream and warmed it up nicely.

Cutting the corn off the cob

As it was heating, we grated a cup of smoked Gouda cheese into the pot.

Grated smoked Gouda

Then it was time to get the bowls out and ladle the delicious potato soup into them. We picked some Italian parsley to garnish the soup and added some of our Criolla Sella pepper to the top.

Ready to eat!

We sat down, thanked the Good Lord for the good food and it was on!

Spoon view

Potato soup is a family favorite and doesn't take long to cook and it disappears very quickly.

Disappearing act

After we had eaten it and enjoyed it, we started thinking about things to add next time that will make it even better - things like mushrooms and bacon and accompaniments like cheese toast.  We'll try that next time...