Written By Everett
July 2, 2021, 7:48 p.m.(10/7/1015 AR)
Ye Auld Farmer's Almanac
Well I'm back in the big big city to deliver the produce for the Farmers' Market, and so that gave me a chance to dig into the mail bag.
Gladice wrote in from deep in the Oathlands, with a question about potatoes that might interest a few readers. She says she's getting on in years and was wondering the absolute easiest way to cut, start, and weed them. Said she'd been cubing them, digging two foot deep potato pits, and watering and weeding every three to five days after. Good news, Gladice! Raising a bumper crop of potatoes doesn't have to be that much work at all! For starters, just bury the whole potatoes, no cutting. Saves time and keeps them safer from the fungi. Don't fret the weeds, and here's how. Just every couple of days, after the eyes have sprouted and the tips have turned green, just sprinkle a layer of new soil atop the whole planting. No holes to dig. Way easier. You'll be making 'potato mounds' instead of 'potato pits' this way! Lighter grade mulch, straw, or hay trimmings will do the trick, just keep piling all that on top just as soon as the leaves poke through the previous layer. The potatoes will grow up toward the light, the spread of weeds be kept down by the mulching, and the straw and hay will lock in some of the soil moisture for good measure. You'll not be so much planting them as sequentially burying them, over and over, and over again. Then in the fall, the potato plants themselves will naturally die back. When they're all dried up, go get your digging stick. Taters in layers, as much as two feet deep!
There's also a reader question about calving, which also happened to come up in conversation with Lord Keaton recently. Now there's a whole various amount of reckoning on the best and most proper season for calving. So I've put a good long think into this, and in the end, I would recommend February. About six weeks before the spring rains hit. That should give the pasture a good chance to take off, and a February calving gives the little ones the most possible time to put on weight before the next winter hits. Just gives them their best chances, I'd say, before they're weaned in October or so!
In any case, feel free to write in with counter suggestions or more questions as well.
I'll be back up here in the big big city by Tuesday next, for the Farmers' Market again!
Well I'm back in the big big city to deliver the produce for the Farmers' Market, and so that gave me a chance to dig into the mail bag.
Gladice wrote in from deep in the Oathlands, with a question about potatoes that might interest a few readers. She says she's getting on in years and was wondering the absolute easiest way to cut, start, and weed them. Said she'd been cubing them, digging two foot deep potato pits, and watering and weeding every three to five days after. Good news, Gladice! Raising a bumper crop of potatoes doesn't have to be that much work at all! For starters, just bury the whole potatoes, no cutting. Saves time and keeps them safer from the fungi. Don't fret the weeds, and here's how. Just every couple of days, after the eyes have sprouted and the tips have turned green, just sprinkle a layer of new soil atop the whole planting. No holes to dig. Way easier. You'll be making 'potato mounds' instead of 'potato pits' this way! Lighter grade mulch, straw, or hay trimmings will do the trick, just keep piling all that on top just as soon as the leaves poke through the previous layer. The potatoes will grow up toward the light, the spread of weeds be kept down by the mulching, and the straw and hay will lock in some of the soil moisture for good measure. You'll not be so much planting them as sequentially burying them, over and over, and over again. Then in the fall, the potato plants themselves will naturally die back. When they're all dried up, go get your digging stick. Taters in layers, as much as two feet deep!
There's also a reader question about calving, which also happened to come up in conversation with Lord Keaton recently. Now there's a whole various amount of reckoning on the best and most proper season for calving. So I've put a good long think into this, and in the end, I would recommend February. About six weeks before the spring rains hit. That should give the pasture a good chance to take off, and a February calving gives the little ones the most possible time to put on weight before the next winter hits. Just gives them their best chances, I'd say, before they're weaned in October or so!
In any case, feel free to write in with counter suggestions or more questions as well.
I'll be back up here in the big big city by Tuesday next, for the Farmers' Market again!
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