With potato plants starting to die back, we started digging up spuds today. Jess had planted a purple variety (purple caribe? blue caribe?) in her garden and we got a huge haul from a single plant. We also pulled up three russet plants out back.
Some of the purple potatoes were huge (biggest I've ever seen--size of two of my fists). Most were good but two had significant inside rot (insect penetration maybe). Alas, it was not dry rot. Laughter as I cut them open and a brie-like goo surged out quickly turned to alarm with cries of "oh God, what is that smell?" (hmmm... I can't think of anything that just happened that would cause a bad smell... now get me a freaking cloth to wipe this up!!!!).
Crisis contained and the rest went into a potato salad. A lot of the colour left the skins when we boiled them. But they taste good. The rest went into the fridge for eating this week. A bit of a scab issue on one of the russet plants so I'll jot down "no potatoes until 2016" on that bed.
When we were digging up the purple potatoes, I noticed that one of them had fruit (two in fact) hanging where the blossom had been. It looked like an immature tomato and, when opened up, it contained seeds and tasted like a green tomato. Same family so maybe potato seeds? I've never seen this before.
The dry beans are starting to be ready and I picked a few pods today which we had fun opening. Tonight I'll make some apple sauce that I'll turn into apple butter tomorrow.
I am cooking up some apples tonight, too, that I will turn into herbed jelly.
ReplyDeleteSounds tasty. I was thinking of doing that with crabs and adding in some mint from the yard but don't recall how my mother juiced the apples back in the 1970s. I recall her boiling them and then letter them drip into a big bowl through a tea towel. Can it be that simple? The apple butter turned out well.
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