potato harvest - surprise!

After the last post when I was so worried about my potatoes getting leafroll virus, I took a leaf sample to the farmer's market so I could ask my farmers as well as the master gardener's. The MGs are a great resource and incredibly eager to help, but they usually have to do some research before giving me an answer. They thought it was an insect because they focused on the holes in the leaves, and we looked through their pest book and found a picture of damage done by potato leaf hoppers that looked exactly like the leaf I had brought in. This was actually good news to me - much easier to deal with than a disease.

But then I took the leaf to my farmer, who said there was nothing wrong with it - it was just ready for harvest! I hoped he was right but I was skeptical because the photo I saw looked uncanny, and my resources all indicated that it was too early for potato harvest. But I also know that the farmer is most likely to be right, because it is his full-time job rather than a hobby (even if the MGs are experts, my understanding is that most are volunteers so they just haven't had as much experience as a full-time farmer).

I came home hopeful and decided to yank up one of each variety of potatoes I planted. It was so exciting to find a bunch of real potatoes under each vine! It makes it totally worth the wait:-) But they were pretty small, so I looked up each variety from the seeds of change catalog and found that indeed, these were both early varieties that take an estimated 100 days until maturity. It hasn't quite been 100 days (I was able to use the time stamp on my camera to verify this) so I will wait a little longer, but I am so relieved.

Here is a photo of the harvest from two plants:


Here is a photo of the cranberry red, which was a gorgeous fuschia color!


We will be using them in our food tonight...I'll let you know how the taste compares in a later post!