peas . potatoes . words are never lost

Potatoes in coffee bags. Peas for dinner and lost books. Is there ever a bad time to be in the garden!

I once wrote a book called Too many children and not enough potatoes. I was a young solo mum with a pack of kids and not a lot of money to feed them. Potatoes and frozen peas made frequent appearances. The little book I wrote was all my budget potato recipes. The book has been lost through the cracks of time but not the love of potatoes.

And not those potato recipes. What’s you favourite way to cook a potato.

Potatoes were cheap and easy to grow and a pot of potatoes and an onion pretty much started all my dinners in those days. Still do actually! Though potatoes are a bit more expensive nowadays.

This summer in my Melbourne compact kitchens garden I have potatoes springing up in coffee sacks. And so far they are doing really well.

As the leaves grow I mound soil and straw up around them, forcing the stems to grow longer under-ground as the leaves stretch their heads up. Tubers grow along the underground stems and by mounding them up high I hope to get more delicious new potatoes. As the plants grow I will keep rolling the sides of the sacks up higher filling them to the top. The sacks have stones in the bottom to prevent them falling over - I hope!

The story goes that when they flower above they are growing potatoes below. But there is still work to do then too. Deblooming or removing their flowers helps the plant direct energy away from seed and berry production and into growing larger, healthier tubers. Plus the berries are poisonous - are they? Or are they merely toxic. I will look that up.

Pause.

Nope - not poisonous - toxic. I was always told the berries were poisonous, as a child. Poisonous is a pretty strong word to be bandying about. But yeah. Toxic is nasty too. Don’t throw potato berries in the salad. They will make you vomit. Stomach cramps. Nasty. With small kids in every garden I work in, we want them to be able to graze freely. So we de-bloom.

And be careful what you tell your kids - if you have your facts wrong, eventually they will find out!

My garden is being visited by a multitude of bees already …

… they are loving the lavenders planted to attract them. Not all plants need pollinators. We are already picking peas! Peas are self pollinating and the pollen usually transfers within the same flower before it even opens — a process called autogamy. Which is pretty clever. But peas and tomatoes and potatoes and a number of others don’t need bees to produce. A good breeze or a bumbling bumble bee does the trick.

In my opinion we focus too much on imported honey bees as pollinators. They are very efficient but not native to Australia or New Zealand or Illinois where my farm is. In Victoria, Australia (the state I am in) there are over 350 species of native bees, and alongside them a quiet army of humble beetles, flies, wasps, moths, butterflies, and tiny hoverflies that go about their gentle work of pollination in the garden. Even wind and movement are pollinators. We are in good hands if we pay attention.

Unless you have an orchard you don’t really need honey bees. Plant the flowers and the local pollinators will come. Though I do like honey.

Actually? Australia has about 11 species of native honey-producing stingless bees - tiny bugs with tiny pots of honey, but let’s not fall down that research rabbit hole today - you know what I am like! We will leave that for another day.

So let’s lay off the chemicals in our gardens. These insects have work to do!

Peas and potatoes are not all I am growing but that will do for today.

I am determined to get my posts back to short and daily. I posted daily for almost twenty years - it is more natural for me. Short and fun. For the summer at least!

I hope to see you tomorrow. All going well. And as always - look after each other. Feed each other. Look after your young families, and our elderly and our hard working, protect the hunted and fearful and pass this message on to those who need it. ⬇️

There is a lot going on. Be resolute and vocal. But don’t be a dick. Tend your garden. Keep the seas clean. Keep your plastic to yourself. Look after each other.

I know you are doing the very best you can. So am I. I see you.

So, what’s your favourite way to cook a potato.

Celi