Tricks of the Trade!

  So while most folks are just now putting in their garden, Mark and I dug our first potatoes.  The new potatoes were beautiful and mighty tasty.  Seeing the rewards of a little effort made me wish I had filled the garden with rows of potatoes instead of one small patch.  Actually, that was all of the "seed" potatoes that I had handy so the short row had to do.  These were simply potatoes from the grocery store that had gotten shoved in a basket and overlooked until they were slightly shriveled and had inch long sprouts on them.  Six potatoes turned to about three gallons.  When we made the row, I carefully cut those six potatoes in three to four pieces (around those nice sprouts), laid them in the row and hoped for the best.  They did extremely well for being kitchen discards!

  Back on the farm, Pop would start planting in January.   Seeds were sowed in the hotbed and then by mid February, the seedlings were set in the field.  "Plant early.  You may lose some plants to freezes but you never know when the weather may be agreeable and you will have early crops."  We always had new potatoes, yellow squash and green beans by Easter.  Sure, there were times when the weather would turn for the worst and we would lose a lot of plants but the risk was worth taking.  When our little farm could produce fresh vegetables a full month ahead of others, it was worthwhile.

  When digging the potatoes, I told Mark how we (as kids) had to cover hundreds of plants in the field before unexpected freezes.  The kids would put black plastic flower pots over the tomatoes and squash plants, then Pop would use the tractor to plow dirt over top of the pots.  After the threat of a freeze was over, we would head back to the field to dig out the pots.  More oft than not, Pop was right and the plants were fine.  Things like potatoes were simply plowed under.  By the time the potato plant pushed through the six inches of dirt, the threat of bad weather had passed.  These were all tricks of the trade for Pop.  These are all tricks of the trade that he taught to me.  Plant early!