Fortune favors Fools

Hi, y'all!

Hope you're having a great day today - in my area it's beautiful, sunny and hot, and I guess we'll be having a BBQ tonight with some delicous baked potatoes, and I'll tell you why in a sec.

You might be wondering about the header… In Germany we have a proverb with the same meaning as the above, but it translates like this: The most stupid farmers harvest the largest potatoes - that's what led me to the theme of this week's post. But I get distracted, so let's get back to business...

There is a new trend to homesteading. Whereas prior generations gladly bought groceries and produce in the nearby supermarket (and it was surely a sign of wealth not to be forced to plant things themselves), I lately noticed a change in mindset due to various reasons. It may be because people want to be independent, or because they don't trust conventional farming any longer, or because they want their children to experience that cherries don't grow in mason jars, or simple because it's fun to dig in the dirt sometimes!

I grew up in a rural village and a small city, and I remember pretty well my grandparents' backyard with fruit and veggies galore. Nevertheless, at my parent's home we bought our groceries on the weekly market or the discount store. We didn't have a garden, and nobody thought of growing tomatoes in a pot. Therefore, my green thumb shows fifty shades of brown, I guess...

Anyway: When the panic shoppers raided the stores for toilet paper, I thought of planting a Kleenex-tree :-) Just kidding… We're far from being preppers, but still I get a calming feeling if I have a well-stocked pantry. And even better, if it's filled with home-made stuff. Therefore, I took some seeds out of a bell-pepper and planted it - epic fail! Nothing happened - null, nada, zero, not even the slightest hint of something green. Now I know, that this is normal - they are cultivated that way (maybe on purpose…). To guarantee some kind of success, I tried planting potatoes. This is planting for beginners, and if you don't eat them, you can produce Vodka - win-win, I'd say. 

Thus I grabbed some potatoes with eyes - 10 spuds in total, I guess. Then I took two containers I use for gardening and drew a few holes in them for drainage. A layer of little rocks to ensure that surplus water can get away easily, then soil on top and potatoes in. And both containers were put on movable plant stands to keep them mobile if needed. And after a few weeks there was some development:

To be honest: That picture wasn't from the early days - I had added some soil in the meantime. That's how you do it: Cover the potatoes with soil and when the green comes out, again layer some soil on top. Due to the containers' height I did that once or twice. 

And here you can see the difference: Maximum height of the green. After that, only the potatoes grew. Oh, and they bloomed: 

Pretty, right? They say, it takes roughly 100 days from planting to harvest, but you can also tell by the leaves. When they turn brown and withered, it's time to harvest. Which we did a few days ago: 

Roughly two kilos of potatoes - not bad for the first attempt, I think! We already had a taste test, and they turned out delicious. As there are so many tiny ones we might have waited a bit longer, but hubby was impatient. 

And in light of the size of the potatoes I might say we are on the right side of the German proverb...

Take care, y'all!

P.S.: In contrast to the failed bell-pepper experiment the lemon seeds grow well so far:

P.P.S.: Due to the transition to the new blogger version the system is bitching around regarding formatting. Just ignore it (maybe with the help of some Vodka...)