Potatoes

Buy seed potatoes. Cut the seed potatoes into chunks with one or two eyes per chunk. Allow the chunks to set overnight to allow them to build a protective skin on the newly cut areas (protects against disease).

Dig trenches around three feet apart; mine are about one foot deep. Bury the seeds in the trenches with a small amount of cover. As the stalks grow, transfer the soil from the trench walls to the stalks. At maturity, the trench walls will be ‘flopped’ onto the plants and the low areas will be between the plants. The potatoes will grow in the soil heaped against the stalks.

You can start eating early potatoes in late summer. For best yield, wait until the leaves die off in the fall.

Potatoes can be stored through the winter in a cool, dry, and dark area. Our ancestors called this a ‘root cellar’.

3,000 square feet of good soil will provide 2,000 calories per day.