Harvesting new potatoes

My granddaughter and I planted our potatoes on St Patrick and was harvesting new potatoes today. I pulled the plants and she was digging the ones that stayed in ground. MM is great for the kids to dig in. she lives with me, so whenever Papa is in the garden, she is too.

What a dolly! You are a tease posting your OK spuds in the PNW. I WISH some of my St Paddy potatoes were that far along. They are JUST poking through the mix. You southern gardeners actually get to eat already. Awesome.

what great fun for someone that age,....or any age for that matter.
Digging up potatoes. I have a really hard time waiting for them to be ready...I am always SOOOO curious what is going on under the ground.

She sure is a cute tater farmer! How lucky to be getting spuds already. I'm a bit jealous

how DO you know when earlies are ready?

As a rule anytime after the plant blooms you will have new potatoes of all sizes.. From pea size up to 3-4 inches. You can reach under the mm and get them or pull the whole plant like I did. I only grow my potatoes for new potatoes.

I'm waiting until the farmer down the road pulls his up. We planted almost the same day. His are blooming and one of my plants bloomed.

Kay

She is sooo cute! Congrats on the crop!

[quote="jfkelly001"]My granddaughter and I planted our potatoes on St Patrick and was harvesting new potatoes today. I pulled the plants and she was digging the ones that stayed in ground. MM is great for the kids to dig in. she lives with me, so whenever Papa is in the garden, she is too.

That is such a sweet picture. One of my earliest memories at the grandmothers house is the men with their pitchforks digging, and the grandkids gathering the taters out of the dirt. Just as much fun as an easter egg hunt.

That is great that your granddaughter is helping in the garden. She will learn early on to appreciate what she grows. I think children should be taught to enjoy all foods, especially fruit and vegetables. She's a cutie, too!

"I feel it’s important for children to understand how the world works, including the natural world. Gardening is a world of experiments, wonder, and development. I also want my grandkids to know where food REALLY comes from–not a shelf in the store, but from the earth, and it starts as a seed."

These are not my words, but a quote from a web site I visited. But that how I feel. Some of my married grandkids who grew up in the city will not eat food from my garden because it grows in dirt (MM). But this grand daughter eats right from the garden while we are working in it. so what if she plants a seed to deep or it is out of place in a square. She is doing the best a 2 year old can and the plant and I don't care. But the main thing is she is learning and we are spending time together. I hope 1 day when she is an adult, she will tell her kids about the good old days with papa, while she is teaching her kids the love of gardening.

Last year my grandkids (three of them) were out helping me pick the beets (I hate beets ) i guess the beets knew it cause they really were terrible lol..

anyway..they started having me slice the beets right then lol...

this spring it was "NaNa, are you going to plant more of those red things?" but they wont touch them if they are cooked

And they love to help pick strawberries..ok.nana pick and they eat

jfkelly001 wrote: ...Some of my married grandkids who grew up in the city will not eat food from my garden because it grows in dirt (MM)....

I gotta admit, this statement made me a bit confused... ... I mean, where do they think food comes from, anyway? Grocery stores are the bane of society if people aren't willing to eat fresh veggies out of a garden!

jfkelly001 wrote:"I feel it’s important for children to understand how the world works, including the natural world. Gardening is a world of experiments, wonder, and development. I also want my grandkids to know where food REALLY comes from–not a shelf in the store, but from the earth, and it starts as a seed."

These are not my words, but a quote from a web site I visited. But that how I feel. Some of my married grandkids who grew up in the city will not eat food from my garden because it grows in dirt (MM). But this grand daughter eats right from the garden while we are working in it. so what if she plants a seed to deep or it is out of place in a square. She is doing the best a 2 year old can and the plant and I don't care. But the main thing is she is learning and we are spending time together. I hope 1 day when she is an adult, she will tell her kids about the good old days with papa, while she is teaching her kids the love of gardening.

I loved this! I have 3 little ones and my middle child who is 3 loves planting seeds with me, she remebers what we planted where and goes to check on them everytime we water the garden! If she sees a sprout she say "mom we gonna eat this" every time!

givvmistamps wrote:

jfkelly001 wrote: ...Some of my married grandkids who grew up in the city will not eat food from my garden because it grows in dirt (MM)....

I gotta admit, this statement made me a bit confused... ... I mean, where do they think food comes from, anyway? Grocery stores are the bane of society if people aren't willing to eat fresh veggies out of a garden!

That is what the problem is. They do not think where the food comes from. They just buy it and eat it. Kinda makes you wonder how many would survive if the stores and fast foods shut down.

jfkelly001 wrote:

givvmistamps wrote:

jfkelly001 wrote: ...Some of my married grandkids who grew up in the city will not eat food from my garden because it grows in dirt (MM)....

I gotta admit, this statement made me a bit confused... ... I mean, where do they think food comes from, anyway? Grocery stores are the bane of society if people aren't willing to eat fresh veggies out of a garden!

That is what the problem is. They do not think where the food comes from. They just buy it and eat it. Kinda makes you wonder how many would survive if the stores and fast foods shut down.

I think this is one of the points that Barbara Kingsolver makes in her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It's amazing to me that so many people just don't think about the fact that vegetables grow on plants in the dirt...and that's not even the root veggies! What, do they think they're going to get sick from veggies from good soil, and grocery stores only sell hydroponics veggies? I trust my veggies more than I do the grocery store stuff; at least I know no chemicals have gone on or into them, and I know that they're free of e-coli because I don't live near cattle. Granted, I'll wash them in case a random bird went poo on the produce when flying by, but, oh phooey! Let me get off my soapbox! Anyway, I want my kids to know where food comes from, so we're growing everything that will grow down here at one point or another. I wanted to do peanuts, but just haven't gotten around to it. If we weren't inside the city limits with a livestock ban, I would have a few chickens.

jfkelly001 wrote:

givvmistamps wrote:

jfkelly001 wrote: ...Some of my married grandkids who grew up in the city will not eat food from my garden because it grows in dirt (MM)....

I gotta admit, this statement made me a bit confused... ... I mean, where do they think food comes from, anyway? Grocery stores are the bane of society if people aren't willing to eat fresh veggies out of a garden!

That is what the problem is. They do not think where the food comes from. They just buy it and eat it. Kinda makes you wonder how many would survive if the stores and fast foods shut down.

I couldn't get my 4 yo grandson to dig in a bucket of MM until we put plastic gloves on his hands and then it was "so hard. I can't do this". We were trying to get him to plant his own tomato. Can you imagine a row garden. The 15 yo granddaughter has finally decided the garden is a wonderful idea and willingly will water it now. Before, I had to insist to get her to help me lift and twist the tarp mixing MM and then she had to go directly " do not pass go, do not collect $200" to the shower.

Kay

I agree about people not knowing where food comes from, and it's really sad.
My grandpa taught me about gardening/farming/animal husbandry from the time I could walk around behind him while he did the outside chores. I owe much of my interest and enthusiasm in those things to him... it was SUCH a gift!
Growing up... if he couldn't grow it or raise it, and it couldn't be caught on a fish-hook or bartered for, we most likely wouldn't have much of it at all. I can only remember a few cans of store-bought things in my grandma's pantry. Most of the "canned" food was in ball jars.

jfkelly - I'm afraid the answer to your head scratcher would be startling. Have you ever heard the scenarios of how long the food supplies of a Walmart last without trucks rolling or other interruptions in food production? It's not days, it's hours. You've seen what it looks like when a storm is about to hit in the milk and battery sections?

So no, it doesn't surprise me at all that many do not have a clue where their food comes from.

BTW that is just an adoreable picture. My 3 year old grands are coming to visit in about 2 weeks and I am really just wondering what they will do to my garden. But I will love it and fix it when they are gone.