Independence days - Potato

This weekend I managed to plant a potato. Ha. It's a very good potato. I think it's the red kind (I threw most of our overwintered potatoes out on the patio a couple weeks ago and now I can't really tell the difference between the varieties). I put it in a container with some soil that grew... basil or something last year, and as it grows up, I'll cover it with leaf mulch to promote the production of more baby potatoes.

When I went to choose which potato to plant, I investigated the potatoes that had been rolled off the patio into what I thought would be a potato patch (I since realized that it is directly beneath the laundry line and thus is not an ideal place for planting). They've rooted themselves and are beginning to grow leaves. Hunh. I didn't even bury them when I rolled them out there. They've just gone ahead and attached themselves to the ground. I'll help them along as time goes by by also covering them with leaf mulch and trying not to step on them when we do the laundry.

This brings me to the idea that planting isn't a particularly exact science. The packets and books say specifically when to plant and how deep to plant, but oftentimes, seeds just want to grow and may very well do just fine if you LEAVE THEM ALONE. I have half a mind to put all my seeds in the garden in the fall and see what happens when they have the option to grow as soon as they sense that conditions are appropriate.

As for harvesting, I pulled a dandelion and chopped up its root to dry for tea. I think that's it. I did make tomato sauce out of home canned tomatoes plus a red and a green pepper from the greenhouse grower at the farmer's market for lunches last week.

We visited the Queens Farm Museum yesterday with some friends, and it was really nice to see farm animals in abundance, plus their growing plants. They already have tomatoes and squashes in the ground, which means I could probably plant mine. The animals I saw included goats, sheep, baby pigs, big pigs, a donkey, tons of chickens including banties and roosters and all manner of colors, a cow, ducks, geese and peacocks. It was interesting to see the pigeons in among the chickens. They were about the same size as one of the banties.