The whole family  helped Mama in her garden when early spring came and it was time to plant potatoes.

First Papa plowed and tilled the soil while my sisters and I helped Mama cut the see potatoes into pieces.  Each had to have a sprouting “eye.”  When the soil was soft, we went out into the garden with Mama and planted the potatoes in the furrows Papa had made. We sued a measuring stick to make sure there was just the right distance between each piece of potato.  It took the whole day just to plant the potatoes.  Then Papa had to spread the soil over them again.

As the potato sprouts grew, Mama showed us how to hoe gently around each plant and how to pick the insects off the leaves.  Finally, in the fall, the time came to lift the potatoes.  Papa used the plow to bring them to the surface, and we girls picked up the potatoes one at a time, gently brushing off the loose dirt.  Finally, we stored them in wooden barrels in the cellar.  There was always enough to last us through the winter.  We loved the different ways Mama cooked potatoes - fried, boiled, roasted, in soups, in casseroles.  I could never decide which was my favorite.

Read Planting Potatoes

© Carolyn Splear Pratt