Grow Your Own Potatoes (she: Amy)

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Hi!! I am Amy Renea and I live in Hershey, PA with my husband, three little boys, 4 chickens and a cat. I spend my days herding children and critters and working as a freelance writer and photographer. I’m a thrift store junkie, Mad Men addict and a new convert to spinach margaritas! My photography and design work has been featured on a variety of outlets including the Nate Berkus show, Garden Design Magazine, Zest Magazine, Hobby Farm Home, BHG.com, Womansday.com, Fine Gardening.com, Design*sponge, Apartment Therapy and more! I blog about design, food, photography and the occasional personal insight over at ‘A Nest for All Seasons’ — come say Hello!

SO…it has been said that you can’t plant potatoes from the grocery store because they are treated to stop them from sprouting. Previously, on my blog I SHOWED how to plant potatoes from your pantry…check that out, first!

Well, today I am proud to report that these 7 cuts of a couple old sprouting pantry potatoes from the grocery store have turned into…

26 delicious yellow, thin skinned potatoes 🙂

Don’t they look yummy?

Don’t they look free?

Speaking of free, this wonderful little pot was free along with a vintage french fry cutter and a bunch of other stuff that now lives in the mud kitchen with the boys 🙂

Harvesting these potatoes was a weird sort of fun. It was almost like treasure hunting, and if anyone ever tells you to use a shovel when harvesting root veggies, don’t listen to them. Use your hands, dig in the dirt and giggle with delight when you find a bunch of potatoes hiding in the dirt. I know…weird…but seriously fun…

The potatoes form on the roots of the plant like this…

I found 1-3 potatoes under each plant ranging in size from tiny new potatoes to nice large potatoes. They all tasted wonderful! Just make sure to cook same sized potatoes together or cut down the larger pieces so they cook evenly. Here is an example of the smallest and largest that I harvested.

How do I know when to harvest my potatoes???

It is easy!! When they get brown and start shriveling up, they are ready to go!

See those brown edges?

Some plants will be even further gone like this:

If you wait any longer, they will shrivel into the ground and it will be harder to find the potatoes. Of course, you can leave the potatoes in the ground and save them for a rainy day…ala Scarlett O Hara…remember when she was starving and went out back and found that one potato that someone missed while harvesting and she sat out in the field eating it raw??? Am I the only one that vividly remembers that?

Anyway…you only need a very small space to grow potatoes, but you DO need soft, light soil. Don’t waste your pantry potatoes – multiply them!!! 1 or 2 of these potatoes will get cut and placed right back in the ground to multiply themselves again – YAY!