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Old May 23, 2018   #6
carolyn137
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a
Posts: 21,169
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Sure, I've grown lots of potato varieties, but not since I moved to where I am now

Every year I'd plant a 252 ft row of them,I got them from two places,one in Oregon and the other in Maine.

No way can I remember what all the varieties were but I do remember Purple Viking,though and Yukon Gold, and lots of finger ones as well,one was banana, that I remember.

And I never planted whole potatoes, I'd cut sections that had one or two eyes,then if the soil was still cold,sprinkle Sulfa on the cut surfaces then dig a hole and plant them and hill them up as they grew taller.

Then came Fall, maybe even a first freeze and I'd be out there with a shovel, my back to that cold N wind digging them up and putting them in baskets.

More than once I felt that I was back in medieval times, digging potatoes with a passion since I remember that's all we had to eat back then.

Where I live now it's Big potato country,the Atwater family alone had hundreds of acres
and same for the Sheldons and in the Fall all the stands around here,especially Stannards, had lots of different varieties for sale.

The commercial folks have those machines that harvest that way and when they were through with a field they would open it up to anyone who wanted to go looking for the small ones left.

And no better eating than those small red ones,boil, cut them in half and drench them with butter fresh parsley on them.

Carolyn, who notes that the town she lives near, was settled originally by the Irish, and their family names are still here. Maybe I shouldn't say this but when my septic tank froze up in the bitter cold of January,it was Snell Septic who helped out and when he came in to explain everything I found out his name was Rhyne Snell, no better first name than Rhyne to indicate an Irish background.




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