Yesterday I dug through last Fall’s potato bed . We’ve gone through it a few times already for the last of the potatoes, think I’ve gotten them all now. I found some nice red potatoes and decided to replant them . We haven’t had enough red ones.
Last night I made a meatloaf. Local sausage and local organic hamburger, cooked rice, cream, onions( out of the garden) and roasted the last of the potatoes . It ‘s a good time for the spring planting of potatoes, so this morning perused potato catalogs and wrote out an order. It’s very expensive to buy seed potatoes , plus pay the shipping. More than $50.00 for 13.5lbs. of seed potatoes plus the shipping was going to be more than $20.00 more. I remembered the local farmers who had a huge bumper crop of organically grown potatoes dry land farmed in rich river bottom land. They agreed to sell me a 50# box for $50.00. I came home and planted another forty five feet by three feet of russet and yukon gold potatoes. The extras should keep us in local potatoes until the next bed is harvested in the next few months.
I made a potato soup for dinner, spring garlic, purple onions, parsley, fresh thyme and rosemary, potatoes and a small amount of meatloaf. Everyone loved it. We’re still eating spinach, swiss chard, kale, mustard greens, broccoli, lettuce, onions and some beets from the garden. Asparagus and artichokes are just coming on. Eating year round out of the garden, here in California is pretty easy even without a root cellar. We canned tomato sauce, salsa, apple sauce, jam, pickles, green beans from the garden last summer. In the freezer we have blackberries and huckleberries still. There are some lemons on our small tree happily growing next to the chicken coop. Lemon curd and lemon bars have been a staple lately along with custard and puddings from all the eggs the hens are laying. I’ve traded some bread for gelato and for goat meat last week. We eat good! Plus the cost is quite reasonable. I’ve saved seeds for many of my greens and let others reseed in the garden. I buy some seed and some starts, small amounts of organic fertilizer to supplement our manure rich compost. Gardens don’t have to be expensive. Neither should eating be.