My mother has always had a garden and she has always grown potatoes. At 83 she still helps plant, cultivate, and harvest her garden, but my sisters, Lois and Barbara, have for years done most of the work.
I can remember a few years ago for some reason they were having trouble finding potatoes to plant. I think it had been a late Spring, growing-season-wise, and I don't know why but any of the feed stores or garden centers in their area that usually carried seed potatoes either weren't carrying them or had just sold out their supply whenever my sisters stopped by. I think everyone in the area was carrying a lot of one certain variety but not the variety that my family was used to planting.
Anyway, for about two weeks whenever I spoke with my mother or one of my sisters they were bemoaning this shortage of seed potatoes -- to the point that I was about to suggest that I check where I lived and buy and bring them a goodly supply of the correct seed potatoes myself. When I called to make this suggestion my sister Barbara said, "Lois went to Brandenburg this morning and found some. She and mom are getting them in the hills right now."
She paused and then said in a relieved voice, "It's a good thing, too. I could feel the ghosts of our Irish ancestors starting to panic!"
5 comments:
I've got a wee bit of Irish in me too -- I think the Irish in me likes the beer as much as the potatoes. Hmmm, I wonder if the Irish throw anything on Christmas Eve? :-)
It's not a potato seed. lol
It a seed potato -- a potato that has gone to seed, so to speak. Have you ever seen a potato that has sprouts growing out of the "eyes"? Well, if you wanted to, you could cut off a chunk of that potato (with the sprouting eye) and plant it. That's a seed potato.
Those Irish ancestors were the ones who built those beautiful fences in horse country. Anne
What a wonderful entry!! Being Irish I really appreciated this!!! Thanks for sharing! Hugs,
Lisa
This has been great about the taters!
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