Quieting Life

The Gleaners

A friend spread the word that there were potatoes left for the taking at her fella's farm. Yesterday was a fine Indian Summer kind of day, perfect for digging taters. Most of what remained were rose fingerlings, with some red-skinned beauties scattered randomly in the rows. I didn't do anything so compulsive as weigh our haul, but I'd guess we got off with about 50 pounds. Joan, my partner in gleaning, took a small bag full for short term use, and the rest went right into the root cellar. This spared us trying to divvy them up, and she can stop by any time and retrieve them from their safe storage.

With gratitude to the farmer and the earth:

The Last of the Potatoes

This is the last little clutch of potatoes from last year's garden, stored through the winter in our root cellar. We grew the potatoes in grow bags, a step up from our 'dumpster potatoes' grown in 45-gallon trash barrels. Still – not a thoroughly satisfying harvest: maybe 15 pounds of little potatoes from 6 grow bags. This year we're giving up some real estate to in-ground potatoes and hoping for a higher yield.