Buy Potato. Grow Potato. Eat Potato. Plant. Eat Potato. Plant.

SO...it has been said that you can't plant potatoes from the grocery store because they are treated to stop them from sprouting. Well, perhaps you didn't believe me when I SHOWED YOU IN THIS POST how to plant potatoes from your pantry...

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!