Day #425 The Second Crop Went Bust

Here I thought I might get a second crop of potatoes. I knew they’d probably be pretty small, but I thought there just might be a possibility.

Unh-unh. The weather turned too cold for this perky little plant to make it.

Its feet were in the compost pile. All it needed to do was grow really fast.

I should have known better.

Now it looks like this.

I know I kill off lots of characters in my mysteries without blinking an eye. You’d think I could be blasé about the death of this hopeful little potato that grew in my compost pile just before winter set in.

Queen bees stop laying eggs before the weather gets too cold, and the bees that emerge from the cells at that time are more attuned to winter survival than the summertime bees are.

Too bad potatoes never learned that lesson.

BEEattitude for Day # 425:

       Blessed are those who live attuned to the seasons, for they shall have few disappointments.

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Day #345 Home Grown Taters

Remember way back this past March (Day #157) when I planted those seed potatoes in an old plastic garbage can on my back deck?

It worked! The plants grew up over the summer (and probably were pollinated by my own bees). Well, harvest time has come. I just scrubbed off a few, and I’m planning to cook them for dinner tonight.

I thought you’d like to see what they look like. They're not very big -- that's a blue-ringed cereal bowl.

Are they just taters like any other taters? On the one hand, I guess I’d have to say yes. They're like any other good organic potato I could buy at a farmer's market. 

But on the other hand, they’re mine, and that makes them special.

Bet they’re gonna taste delicious!

BEEattitude for Day # 345:

       Blessed are those who relish the goodness of the earth, for they shall be constantly gratified.

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Green as a Garden Hose, the 3^rd Biscuit McKee Mystery,

is now available in mass market paperback

from World Wide Mystery, a division of Harlequin.

(Go to www.eHarlequin.com and search for Fran Stewart)

or use this link:

http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=24312&cid=$item.i_origcat

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Get Your Dog in My Next Book!

From now through the end of September, anyone who donates $10 to WAG, also known as the Walton Animal Guild, will be automatically entered in a drawing.

If you win, your dog will be in my next Biscuit McKee mystery!

http://www.wagwalton.com/News.php

The donate button is right on their home page

Every $10 donation is automatically entered in the drawing

See Blog #324 for the details.

Day #157 Potatoes in a Garbage Can

I found the coolest book at the library: Grow Great Grub: organic food from small spaces by Gayla Trail. It's a good enough book that I plan to buy a copy so I can make notes in the margins. She said I could grow potatoes in a trash can, as long as it was more than 18” tall. A clean garbage can.

So, I unloaded a blue plastic behemoth that’s been sitting in this garage for six years and in the one at my previous house for at least ten years. It held odd tools and long scraps of wood, all of which I stashed here and there around the garage, contributing to the overall happy clutter. Drilled some holes in the bottom of the can and filled it with 5” of potting soil.

There were these two already-sprouting potatoes on hand, one of which I found in the back of my refrigerator drawer. [Don’t raise your eyebrows at me. I have a botanically-interesting ‘fridge. So there.]

I cut each potato in several pieces, each with an active eye, and let them dry for a couple of days. Then I plopped them in the can, covered them with another 2 or 3 inches of soil and waited for them to grow up through that layer. I keep piling more dirt on them as they extend upward. Eventually the can will be full, the shoots will leaf out, and finally will flower. That will make my bees happy!

Once the leaves yellow and die back, I’ll be able to harvest pounds and pounds of potatoes without having had to do any weeding to speak of. That will make me happy!

The bees win / I win.

Perfect.

BEEattitude for Day # 157:

       Blessed are people who write helpful books, for they shall be loved by their readers, and we bees shall praise them for the way we benefit.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       My thrifty cell phone from Consumer Cellular   

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