My Almost Daily Journal-A Good Potato and Onion Harvest

Volume 39-Tag Along With Me on My Sometimes Boring Sometimes Interesting Sometimes Humorous Journey Through Life

Welcome back to my journal. Yeah, it’s been a while. I thought it was time to get back to writing in my journal. Yes, I have written articles recently. But I love the journaling format. Just writing what comes to mind; that is the idea. Write about your current situation and what you're doing daily. For my fellow writers, I encourage you to give it a try.

For the last few days, I have been harvesting potatoes and onions. It’s that time of the year. Summer is winding down, and I am enjoying the results of my hard work in the garden. Although the garden has been producing all summer, some of the major crops, such as onions and potatoes (also tomatoes), are now ready.

Onions

Over the last few days, I harvested the yellow Stuttgarter-type onions that I planted using onions sets. I wrote an article about planting both the onions and potatoes back in mid-May:

These onions were ready for harvest since the tops had died off. The onions were a little smaller than usual but still of decent size. The extremely dry conditions have affected the garden this summer. I did some limited watering; however, it is difficult to keep up with. Next year one of my projects is to bury a hose down to the garden (about 100 feet), thus allowing me to more easily fill my watering barrel. Also, I will set up some sprinklers to make it easier. Hand watering is difficult and overwhelming when conditions get very dry.

Stuttgarter onions are good all-purpose onions and also store well. The cellar in our 1835 farmhouse serves as a good root cellar as the temperature remains pretty constant all year long. In the winter, the furnace prevents it from freezing; however, the temperatures stay cold enough for great vegetable storage.

I also have some Sweet Spanish onions growing that I started from seed. They are still growing as they are a later variety. Hopefully, we will get some rain so these can grow larger over the next month or so.

Potatoes

Today I also finished digging the potatoes. Over the last few days, my granddaughter enjoyed the first-time experience of digging potatoes. Kids love it; it’s like finding buried treasure! This year, I planted Yukon Gold, Kennebec, and Red Norland potatoes. Actually, the Kennebec variety was an accident. When I ran out of Yukon Gold that I bought at a local farm store, I pulled out some from the cellar from last season. I thought they were Yukons, but it turns out they were Kennebec, a nice white potato.

Also of note, the Red Norland variety was planted using the “straw method”, whereby the seed potatoes are laid directly on top of the soil and covered with straw. As the season progresses, more straw is added. It is an easier alternative to the traditional trench method, which requires digging both when planting and harvesting. I have had great results from the straw method for 2 seasons now.

Overall, the potato harvest was good. I haven’t weighed them yet, but I’m guessing about 75 pounds of Yukon Gold, 25 pounds of Kennebec, and 35 pounds of Red Norland. I think overall, the size of the potatoes was smaller due to the dry conditions. But a good result nonetheless.