Filed under: October 2018 | Tags: Ant and the Grasshopper, cover crop, gardening, potatoes
October 2, 2018
Yesterday, my wife and I dug our potatoes. This is the last garden harvest of this season. The ground was damp, so the potatoes are a bit muddy. I will lay them out on the floor of the shop to dry some before storing them in their crates. The drying cures the spuds, while allowing the mud to dry and fall off. Much better to have the dry dirt on the shop floor, rather than the basement.
These will keep in our root cellar until next March. Plenty for the two of us. In past years when the kids were all home, potato harvest was a much bigger deal! Funny how garden size and portion size shrinks as we age.
As we dug the last shovel out of the round, we paused to say….ahh, my aching back! We laughed with each other as we finished the job. It was a good feeling to make the harvest complete, just before forecast rain. I even managed to get the whole garden rototilled and seeded to a cover crop of rye. The garden now put to bed for winter, I can focus on the remaining jobs to be done before the snow blankets us all.
Yesterday too, I managed to get all of the summer compost spread on ground that will be plowed for next year’s corn. I pushed hard as the skies threatened to rain, but alas, no rain came until the overnight. The winds of autumn are starting to blow. Rains sprinkle us often, as the leaves start to turn color. When it comes to the fable of the “Ant and the Grasshopper”, be the Ant.
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RicelandMeadows 
How do you store your potatoes so they don’t rot over the winter? I put mine in wooden crates in my basement laundry room which is dark. They still rot??? Thanks!
Comment by Jacklyn October 2, 2018 @ 1:15 pmJacklyn, yes, they need to be dark, but also cool 50-60 degrees and pretty constant. Your laundry room probably gets too warm, then cool, then warm again. Try making a small room in the corner of your basement. Insulate the room and put a door on it. The room will stay cool, without freezing. Store the potatoes in crates as you describe, making sure that air can get all around them, even by setting them on small slats, up off the ground. I like to let my dry/cure a few days on the shop floor before putting them in the crates, especially if they are damp like the ones in the picture above.
Comment by ricelandmeadows October 2, 2018 @ 7:50 pm