This week, there are flower buds on some of our potato plants, which is cause for a mixed set of responses.
First, there are fist pumps because this means there will be new potatoes before long. One of life’s great experiences is a pan of new potatoes, with or without green beans.
New potatoes are like winning the lottery, beating Texas and going on your honeymoon all on one plate.
But, alas, there was an accompanying blanket of sadness, as well, because, dang it, I’m not supposed to eat potatoes any more due to a recent diagnosis of diabetes.
You may recall from previous columns that Kindra and my lower back and I decided to plant a garden this year that would require minimal bending.
This turned out to involve 33 18-gallon tubs and 23 five-gallon buckets, which the three of us filled with appropriate soil and planted with radishes, onions, beans, spinach, okra, squash (“squarsh,” if you are from Fitzhugh), tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes and sweet potatoes.
So far, so pretty good.
The tomatoes, which are the stars of any garden, are doing well and putting on their first blooms. There are four Black Krim tomato plants, because they are my personal favorites.
They’re dark and lumpy and as ugly as a bases-loaded walk, but Black Krims are the best-tasting tomato in the history of gardening. In fact, after Black Krim, there is no second-best-tasting tomato. The rankings drop down to third place and go from there.
There are a couple of Cherokee Purple tomatoes and some Black Prince, too. We also have plants some that will produce red tomatoes, but I have a feeling those will fulfill their destiny as fried green tomatoes long before they turn red.
The potatoes are doing well and, as mentioned, are putting out blossoms. We have Yukon Gold - the bloomers - and Adirondack Blue, which are interesting because they have a deep blue tint on some of their leaves.
Adirondack Blues are spectacular potatoes whether baked, fried or mashed. Especially mashed, actually, because a bowl of blue mashed potatoes are something all of us should see and eat at least once.
Everything is healthy and green or blue and growing like it should. We haven’t had to weed and we haven’t had a squash or potato bug yet.
We even brought some of the buckets inside to dodge a freeze, so the early report is: two green thumbs up for planting in tubs.