Last week was harvest time at the Taylors. Our massive potato field needed to be gleaned of the golden vegetables. It ended a scientific and culinary experiment. Can we grow potatoes in a home garden?
The answer is yes. It can be done.
These aren't all the potatoes we found--others fulfilled their destiny and became food, but those remaining were cleaned and prepared for yet another meal, or snack, or side dish.
I have many cousins, and many of them grew up in Idaho. Back then, you could get your driver's license at age fourteen. There were restrictions, of course. If I remember correctly, a fourteen-year old could not drive at night. Why did Idaho allow such early driving?
Farmwork.
You got to harvest those potatoes.
I remember in parts of the state, kids even had school canceled so they could help with the harvest. I waas always a bit envious of my cousins until one fall I happened to be visiting family during the potato harvest season and I saw how much work it took to bring those spuds in. It's a LOT of work. I think days of legal underage driving and time off for the potato harvest are long past. Still, I'm sure many a forty to sixty-year old Idaho native remembers those days.
We didn't know what we were doing when we planted several potato starts in our yard months ago. To be honest, I didn't know what I was doing--my son Knight had researched what to do and his hard work paid off. I've had the fruits of his labors and he did well.
Soon, my son will be leaving the nest to create his own household. I'm not sure where they'll end up--not sure if they exactly know themselves, and that's okay. They'll figure it out. I also wonder if they'll plant potatoes next spring.
Time will tell.
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