Potatoes in the garden

Planting time is here. Even though the weather has been fantastically warm, I've been holding off on putting anything into the ground. Potatoes, onions, strawberries, elderberries, lettuces, spinach, and leeks — all piling up in the sun porch. 

I usually put the potatoes, onions and greens in around the 15th of April. But the warm days finally got to me, and the Purple Viking potatoes went in yesterday. 

Oh how I love potatoes! They're like little treasures just biding their time, until August's drying winds withering the stems and leaves signal time to dig! And then I go, on hands and knees, unearthing troves of earthly gems. Great big "peelers" and tiny, bantam-egg fryers. Pounds and pounds spread upon the picnic table to dry in the warm shade. The excitement of weighing the bounty and calculating my seed to harvest ratio.

Those little golden nuggets of potato goodness kept us going all winter. And that was with Husband making fried potatoes nearly every weekend. Plus nurturing our family's love of mashed potatoes. I think we could have them every night and everyone would be quite happy. Usually we run out of potatoes in December, but our supply amazingly made it to February. This year's goal is to make it to spring!

Today we will plant one of the other varieties: Bintje, Colorado Rose, or Rio Grande. And I will bring the greens out to harden off. I do love gardening time! Yay spring!