Digging Taters and Onions

It is time to dig the potatoes and onions. We used to tell  the kids we were digging french fries. It made it a lot more fun for them and they were a lot more help for us. That doesn't work anymore but we still had one helper today.

And so after morning chores we headed to the garden. Actually, it was after lunch as we had some minor delays (like fixing the dishwasher that was running water all over the kitchen!) and the heat was wicked. We started with the onions. A total count of 754! With the 60 I have sold to the CSA and the other couple of dozen I had pulled to eat on our total for this year was 838. It was our biggest and best crop ever. The onions are huge and oh, so sweet. We spread a tarp in the horse trailer and laid them all out to allow them to finish drying. I will be moving them around daily this week and as soon and as they dry, the tops will come off and I will hang them in the basement.

It was then on to the potatoes. We were a bit disappointed on that end. Only a total of 6 bushels. There have been years we have harvested 12 or more. I think with the dry weather, the potato beetle attack earlier and the different way we tried planting this year, that our harvest suffered. Certainly enough to get us through but not enough to sell any great quantities. I will have to go through the baskets, checking for nicks and spots before storing them for the winter, some time this week as well. Once we get these areas plowed it will be time for the crowder peas and drying beans to go in the ground. Hopefully that will happen on Monday.