Monday, January 16, 2012

the last of the potatoes!

our harvest this year was dismal. not a complete failure but pretty dismal. we started building raised beds in march, april was all about getting the seeds started indoors and june and july were filled with rainy, gray, overcast days. during august we were harvesting daily fruit and veg from the garden but there was no great harvest of produce to be canned or frozen. we have learned much for this coming spring/summer and we are hopeful that this year will be bountiful.

the one star this year was our potatoes. we have been growing potatoes in tires for 4 years now and they have always been our stars! the year before last, back in the city, we grew about 160lbs of 3 different kinds of potatoes - we eat a lot of potatoes around here! we planted them early and started harvesting baby potatoes in july. the potatoes lasted us right until the following april-may. growing your own potatoes can save you a lot of money!

this year, we planted 18 tires, 3 tires high, with 3 different kinds of potatoes. our harvest this year was about 120lbs of potatoes - not too bad for a horrible growing season! and today, jambaloney harvested the last of the potatoes as we are expecting a few days of well below freezing (that's the good thing about tires - you can harvest as needed until you start to get freezing temps that stay!). we have been eating our own potatoes since this past july and this last harvest yielded about 30lbs - those potatoes should last until the end of march. between april and july we will wait for potatoes as we try to eat as seasonally as possible. and when we run out of potatoes - we run out of them and will substitute turnip and/or cabbage in its place.

here is a pic of the tire gardens when we first planted the potatoes:



it looks pretty messy as we had not had a chance to properly clear the land at this point! and here is a pic taken about 3 weeks later, after we had hilled the potatoes, and then added another tire:



and here is a pic of the empty tires, all harvested now, and they will be stacked nicely to await use again this april. as you can see, we haven't stacked them nicely yet! but as you can see, we have finished clearing all of this side of the land.



(note: if you look closely to the right of the pic, you get a sneak peek at throw-together-shed-number-2. future upcoming posts on the tale of two sheds.)

and here is the last of the potatoe harvest 2011/2012. these are organic brown russets and organic red chieftains. we ate all of the goldrush potatoes already.



not too shabby! and these can get us through to the end of march and we will enjoy every delicious one of them!

55 comments:

  1. kymber, that's a pretty good potato crop, lasting this long. I don't eat that many potatoes, but probably should.

    I read somewhere about warming the tires with bales of hay. Of course, that seems like a lot of trouble for that many tires. But, if you could extend the season for just a few tires,well...it's what I hear and not from experience.

    You must be very proud of your success in raising food.

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    1. PracticalP - it's not a bad crop but we expected more having planted 18 tires. but it was a horrible growing season and most around here weren't able to get a good potatoe harvest at all so we are thankful for ours.

      you are right about warming the tires with bales of hay - but we decided to harvest the last of them and put them in the cool basement (dirt floor) to be sure that we didn't lose any. the great thing about being here in Framboise is that we didn't have to harvest the rest of them until now. up until today we just go out, dig around in a tire and get what we need for the day. back in the city we had to harvest them in the beginning of december as the freezing temps came much sooner.

      Linda - yes, we are very happy to be able to raise our own food. it is something that has become very important to us. thank you for that.

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  2. I am captivated by the green in your photos and actually had to reread the post!

    I am impressed with all you had going on that you did so well!

    As to potatoes we felt fairly good with about 20 lbs last year(ugh) but I only planted two tire sets. This year, perhaps we can half your bad season...and get 60lbs!!

    I love your place and think it is you. You picked the place that matches everything I think about when I think of the two of you!!

    Happy 2012 garden plans and planting!

    xoxox
    Jennifer

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    1. Jen - i get captivated by all of the wild green around here too. some people might get bored by looking at nothing but trees and wildflowers and grass but it could never bore me. i am entranced by looking at the same things every day - it is always beautiful and makes me feel closer to the Lord. thank you, my friend!

      Jen, as you know, we were very successful with potatoes for the past few years. so although this is less than we expected - we planted 18 freakin tires!!!! - it is still more than most around here harvested so we are thankful. the rest of the garden pretty much sucked. i hope that you can get your 60lbs as every little bit helps eh?

      we love your place too and your beautiful mountains are exactly what i think of when i think of my spicey friend, her gorgeous man and beautiful children. your place really matches you all. i swear - we will all get together one day. we will come there and you all will come here. and we can share all of the magic of each others' places.

      until then, i thank the Lord for providing us this "mysterious" internet way of sharing pictures, our lives and friendship. happy 2012 garden plans and planting to you, too, my forever kind of friend! oh...and can't wait until Nellie kids!

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  3. I have always wanted to try growing potatoes in tires. Looks like a good way to do it.

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    1. Duke - i learned about tire gardening from Kurt Saxon. once i read about it - that was it - i was hooked! the really great thing about it is that you can get the tires for free from any garage. we have about 100 tires that we use to grow a variety of things in - herbs, flowers, cucumber, spinach and of course - potatoes! potatoes seem to thrive in tires.

      give it a try buddy. i think you will enjoy it and the results!

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  4. enjoy those! We love potatoes, and may have to talk senior into trying that way of growing them...

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    1. JUGM - imagine how much money you could save growing your own potatoes?!?!? we haven't bought potatoes in years now and the difference between home-grown and store bought is amazing! i am sure that Senior can be persuaded by your beautiful smile (or you can just whack him in the head with the butt of your Glock - bahahahaha! oh please - don't let Senior read this!!!)

      loved your post today, btw!

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    2. unfortuantly Seniors head is so hard it would break my poor Glock....hahahahahahah...yes I saw you left a message over there..

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    3. teehee honey...ok - don't smack him in the head with the butt of your Glock. and don't let him read these msgs - promises k? i am in fear for my life - bahahahah! and ya - that was an awesome post honey!

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  5. Feels good, doesn't it, to grow your own food...well done.

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    1. Stephen - there is a sense of accomplishment like i have never known. growing it, preparing it, knowing where it came from, knowing it was tended to in a loving manner...and of course - eating it! everyone knows i am a pig for mashed potatoes and gravey - bahahahah! thank you my friend!

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  6. Placing hay bales in between the tires works great, but it makes it difficult to access anything more than 2 rows. More than 2 rows you can fall in between the hay and tires and have taters grow out of your butt until they find you at harvest time.
    :)
    Good little harvest, well done!

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    1. thanks Max...i'll be sure not to use the hay bale method as i do not want anything growing out of my butt at harvest time - bahahahahah! also, i fill the spaces between the tires and plant potatoes there too - so those spaces are off limits.

      thank you very much!

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  7. Ooohh, good idea. I would not have thought of tires. I saw some cloth bags for growing potatos, and thought about that but they were more money than I wanted to spend. But I'll bet my Jim could find a tire or two around. Darn -- he just got tires on the truck and if I had thought about it, I would have had four right there! Thanks, Kymber!

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    1. Kathi - people in the southern US have been growing potatoes in tires since BEFORE cars were invented apparently! not sure where they got the tires but....????

      i read a bazillion different sites after Kurt Saxon's and all kinds of people down in the south grow their potatoes in tires - it's ingenious! it's also nice watching jambaloney fill all those tires with dirt while wearing no clothes...

      HOLY CRAP! did i just type that out loud???

      as for the cloth bags, i am sure that they would work but as they only get so deep the potatoe plants would stop growing roots (potatoes) - which is what you really want the plant to do.

      anyway, try your local garage for tires - they normally have to pay people to come and pick up the tires and will give them away for free!

      your very welcome, me darlin'!

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  8. Just as Humble wife said - I'm totally captivated with all that beautiful green in the background ! I even see what appears to be a fern in the second pic ... LUV IT !!!

    Nice work Kymber ... You got a heavenly bumper crop of potatoes going on there and more this year to look forward to !

    xoxox

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    1. yo Helga - where ya bin? don't you owe me an email????

      anyway - ya the green here does wonders for both of us...we love green! and yes - those ferns are naturally occurring and are everywhere!

      thanks Helga - we love our potatoes and eat them mashed, roasted, baked, in soups and stews...why, when we are making potatoes for dinner or supper (or breakfast for that matter), we run a raw potatoe under water, add salt and eat it just as is. we really likes our potatoes!

      xoxox right back at you!

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    2. Hey Kymber - You're kidding ? I really thought I was the only one that eats raw potatoes with salt. Oh man , the ferns grow everywhere ! How awesome is that !!!! Email sent.

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    3. Helga - oh heck no - we bin eatin' raw potatoes with salt since we were kids?!?!?!? ya, buddy, the ferns grow wild everywhere! got the email and responded. your turn - bahahahah!

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  9. Green keeps people mentally healthy, reduces stress, promotes calmness. I like sitting and looking at grass and trees in my yard. It's not boring at all.

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    1. I totally agree with you ! That's why I need to find a place like Kymber and Jambaloney have. Heaven!

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    2. PracticalP - there have been studies that report exactly what you have said. and oh - i looove looking at the green. green makes me so calm!

      Helga - maybe you need to take a visit here in order to convince you to get a place here...buddy - it's cheap land here. CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP!

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  10. Hey I have missed not hearing from you. Thought maybe the government came and took you away. Oh wait that's not your government that does that it's ours. Sorry my bad. Back home we had potato farms. Didn't know we had any in MN. I learned something that day. Well OK two things the second is I'm not too old to learn something new.

    Later........Rob

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    1. crap Rob buddy - i thought i had been responding to you as you put up posts??? no .gov is ever gonna take us away! you need to get back home and make and grow some potatoes...ya hear, my dear friend?

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  11. My potatoes were doing well until the deer ate the tops off them.

    If I didn't have to go to work, I could sit outside at night with a machete and chop their heads off as they came to munch.

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    1. Russell, buddy, if i had the airtime and could stand to fly - i would stand guard for you!

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  12. Awesome. A friend builds potato boxes out of pine and makes them modular to be able to pull them apart for harvest. Way to go! Enjoy some homegrown scalloped potatoes.

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    1. 45er - i have seen people who do similar and it really is awesome! and makes it so much easier to harvest! but jambaloney likes digging and shoveling so we'll stick with the tires for a few more years! oh i love scalloped potatoes and will post my mean recipe on our recipe blog!

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    1. Wendy - certainly not our best harvest but not too shabby - and ya - they are delicious!

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  14. Why do you use tyres? See I can't bring myself to write tires! That just looks so wrong to me!


    I wish I could get into growing vegetables, but I'm just too lazy. :D

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    1. Joey - we use "tyres" as they help you hill the potatoes as well as the "tyres" keep the moisture and heat. we love using "tyres". now get off your lazy butt, get a tyre, fill it with dirt and drop a potatoe in it. you know that you want to!

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  15. Wow you guys did much better than we did - however we had pretty good luck. We used some of your potatoes from the year before and sprouted them before they went in. Your long growing season is a real boon for spuds.

    I think we will try tires next year instead of a bed. Ted is the potato guy and we are on the hunt for more tires. Had great luck last year with beets. Will try to get some carrots going too.

    Fun to keep in touch and see what you are up to.

    xx Mum/Liz

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    1. Mum/Liz - i am so glad that our potatoes worked out for you - woohoo! and yes - being able to wait until mid-January before having to harvest all of the remaining potatoes provides time to work on other things. plus, by keeping the potatoes in a box covered with a towel in the cool basement (i know, pretty hi-tech!) means they should last a good couple of months.

      i found beets and carrots did well in tires too. the only prob is they take up so much room that you need several tires of each. i prefer beets and carrots in beds now that we have them.

      as for tires - stop into any garage in town. they will give you as many tires as you want for free!

      thanks for stopping in and checking up on us - we appreciate it!

      xoxo

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    2. HHHHMMMM?? Taters, tires, 2 sheds. Sounds like the beginning of the makin's for some home made vodka, from taters. I'm in if you do. I'll even bring the vodka glasses.

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    3. teehee...Flier we ain't sophisticated enough for vodka...our set-up is for old-fashioned moonshine - bahahahah! and trust me - loads of people around here make the 'shine - you can tractors, lawnmowers and skidoos on that stuff! stay away from it Flier!!!

      however, how about i make you some yummy limoncello this summer. you can lay in the hammock and yell when you need a re-fill!

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  16. Wanting to do some "tater tires" myself. But unless we get some significant rain in the next month or so, gardening will be pointless this year. Again...

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    1. Craig - the tires are excellent for keeping in moisture. you can give them a good water and not come back for a month and they'll be fine. give them a try - i think you'll like it.

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  17. My husband and I need to invest in some of the potato tires... we eat a LOT of potatoes... and I never seem to "tire" of them LOL! I especially like them fried with bell peppers and onions... I could eat that everyday I do believe!

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    1. Amanda - you and your hubby are like me and mine - i could eat potatoes every day and never "tire" of them - that was a good one! my favourite way is to make potatoe cakes out of leftover smashed potatoes and eat them like hashbrowns with eggs on top - yummeh!

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  18. Our garden was not the best this year,either.Nice job on the taters!!

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    1. Donna - there isn't a single person i know, here, or on the net who had a good garden year. that's why i am sure that this year is going to rock for all of us!

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  19. I'm with some of your readers in saying that id like to grow potatoes mostly because i eat so many of them, and id like to try to grow my very own. There's something about growing your very own that somehow makes whatever your growing taste that much better, and does it taste better in reality i dont know but it sure seems like it does. I hope to see you at my blog this Thursday when i publish my "Witness" movie tour post of the film staring Harrison Ford from 1985, and this now Amish owned farm may never be open to the public again for this tour! Richard

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    1. Richard - i'll be there for your Witness post - you can count on it!

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  20. Good job, you two!!! :) Has anyone tried the tires with sweet potatoes instead?

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    1. Tango - i haven't tried it with sweet potatoes and i am not sure i can think of anyone off hand who has...we need to do some asking around.

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  21. Hmm...hadn't thought of tires. Last year our harvest in October lasted until late May or early June. We didn't get as many this last fall because we lost a lot of plants and they weren't as fruitful. We have 2 small coolers full and they should last through early or late spring.

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  22. try out the tires Rose, they really work well!

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  23. Wowie zowie! Most impressive. Great setup for the garden too..no pesky rabbits to contend with as well as no errant potatoes getting out! Hehe. Yet another thing we keep saying we are going to do!

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    1. thanks egb! it really is a good set-up, it has worked for us for years now so we aren't going to fix anything that isn't broken! and we do have a lot of rabbits around here - none of them touched the garden - they were much more interested in the peanuts that we put out for our birds and squirrels - strange eh?

      you and A should throw a few tires together this spring and give it a go!

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  24. Visiting via Celie's Kitchen's Garden blog. I do like this idea of planting in tyres. Do you use anything other than garden soil to fill them? We have access to donkey poo, which seems to grow good spuds. Is it one plant per tyre tower? My garden tour is here: http://vivinfrance.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/six-word-saturday-9/

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    1. vivinfrance - anyone visiting from Celi's blog is already a friend! i have been planting potatoes in tires for 5 years now and my worst harvest was 120lbs! tires are awesome for potatoes and they take up much less room than hilling them in rows! if you lined the bottom of each tire with donkey poo, and then regular dirt - you will be amazed at the potatoes that you will grow. you start with one tire, fill it with dirt, add another tire on top and then plant your potatoe seeds about 4 inches in. once the plants are 4-6 inches tall, add another tire and cover them with dirt so that only one inch is out of the dirt. keep doing this until you have 4-5 tires. once they brown and wither - they are ready for harvest. if you have any more questions - contact me at kymberzmail@gmail.com.

      i am going to check out your blog now - i love finding new blogs! i hope to see you back again!

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    2. Thank you. Most helpful. Is it one potato per stack? Or can you put in two or three? Have you tried doing new potatoes for Christmas like that? I know you can do them in a bucket, but your tyres make much more sense!

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    3. vivinfrance - thanks for coming back! i usually do 4-6 potatoes per stack. because we have such a long growing season - i just leave the potatoes until we have a really hard frost - not usually until the beginning of january. i am loving your blog, btw.

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