Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[CanuckBock]

Pretty soon girls will have to brush up on their "show' manners. I'm getting excited already.

Time flying by...gotta submit entry before holiday Monday... agh!

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Not sure if the girl's will hold their coats (or Emmy won't stop grinding dirt in Lacy's fur!)

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Tater harvest in the nick of time...

Food potatoes and seed for next season. Biggest harvest ever! ​

Snow, snow...the ground is white..

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Taters taters and more taters...

Some as big as...

Meet the MRS.s potato heads...

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Lookit Emmy's face...fur us...one tater...all fur us...Lacy is already getting ready to BITE!

Have a great Thanksgiving...off to son's fur that, and yes, bringing the turkey bird...should be fun. Gotta fly...snow, snow, white season upon us now!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[scottcaddy]

My Dear Tara,
You have some kinda great 'tater' skills! Have you given any thought to starting a truck garden, good money to be had for the right person.
Thanks for the update

Scott

 

[Bunnylady]

Wow! Bunches and bunches of 'taters, and lovin' all the colors. Hope you have lots of potato recipes!

 

[drumstick diva]

Snow !

 

[Bunnylady]

Ohh, here's a thought that doesn't bear thinkin' - what if all the rain I have gotten today had come in the form of snow?!

 

[scottcaddy]

Ohh, here's a thought that doesn't bear thinkin' - what if all the rain I have gotten today had come in the form of snow?!

All of your critters would be under snow, so to speak

Scott

 

[getaclue]

With so many choices, have you figured out which potato goes best with each type dish, or way it will be prepared?

 

[chickisoup]

A day early I know, but this way I am first!!!

(I always thought you guys had a much more sensible day for your celebration.
Yours is actually during the harvest!)

 

[drumstick diva]

HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE. please send turkey leftovers to me. I LOVE turkey.

 

[CanuckBock]

Sep 25​

Gonna go in the water plant pond.

Sept 25 - another dog font perhaps?​

Store it in the garage until next year.

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Some of the seeds the potatoes produced...look like tomatoes

Oct 5​

Not worth saving as the seeds from these are too unpredictable.

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Thinking I got enough seed potatoes put by...

Oct 5 - Seed potatoes saved up​

May just plant whole potatoes instead of chitting them and then cutting them for planting.

Oct 4​

Tomatoes in garage begin to ripen.

Oct 1 - still harvested from herb garden​

No more harvesting herbs from the herb garden.

Oct 4 - Fresh herbs potted up​

Got them potted up and now inside the house on shelves.

Sep 23 - Harvest helper dogs

Wasn't overly serious about potato harvest on the 23rd...got real serious on Oct 5 & 6 though. Long evenings digging, probably 4 to 5 hours at a shot...then next day serious about washing and digging up more.

Oct 5 - main potato plot - not much left in tater tops, eh!



Oct 5 - other plot for potatoes ​

Oct 6​

Good thing I got on this...

Oct 7 - Snows have arrived--YEE HAW! Excellent!!!​

Some years, the snow comes and the white never leaves till like June.

Sep 23 - Casually harvesting taters for BBQing that eve ​

The nature of how a potato grows, unless you are hilling over the plants with dirt...the surface taters could freeze and then, not much good for storage purposes. Minus eight C this morn (17.6F).

Oct 5 - Drying seed potatoes outdoors ​

Would have liked another day to dry the taters on sheets outside...may get another day, eh.


Quote:
Originally Posted by scottcaddy

My Dear Tara,
You have some kinda great 'tater' skills! Have you given any thought to starting a truck garden, good money to be had for the right person.
Thanks for the update

Scott

Years back when I first had Candy Cane taters (had lots of shapes and colours...Russian Blue, all red, banana ones, etc.) I gave thought to keeping them going...another conservation type thing like we do with the livestock, poultry, antiques and vintage vehicles. Plate was full 15 years ago...so I let the candy cane seed potatoes get eaten...now I want them back again so ordering this spring from local grower (talking I could ride a horse there, so this is MY area where these potatoes will come from).

Now I am eyeing up varieties raised here locally and thinking...might add nine more varieties to the nine I have now (Russian Blue, French Fingerling, Linzar Deleketess, Purple Caribe, Ama Rosa, Alta Blush, Red Viking, Nicola, and Yukon Gold).

Oct 6 - My seed potatoes for next season - see some have green on them?
Gonna see how these store up as seed for next year​

Thinking perhaps to get...Candy Cane (had these before), Dakota Pearl, Warba (had these before), Purple Viking (got Red version), Roko (suppose to store well), All Blue (heritage and like the Russian Blue I have already), Pink Fir Apple (a fingerling), Banana (fingerling too) and Blue Mac (smaller purple, the Caribe, holy they did well, and massive in our short growing season!).

Half the taters I gave the kid.

Note, Russian Blue is a late season type - so not as big as I would like...then again, Purple Caribe, is huge...
some scab showing on the Russian Blues and the Caribes too
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Ever pick real apples off real trees at home...there are never those grocery store identicals...sure, some are the same but the true sign you have a homegrown, handcrafted product is the differences in each one...some same, some not. That shouts to me regarding REALNESS...not factory commercialised CLONED products.

For whatever reason...placement, nutrients, moisture, good seed??... Caribe was the best for biggest tater this year​

Took three potatoes of each kind of potato we grew to my son's on Thanksgiving...had him weigh them...so if my calculations are correct...I gave him $40 worth of potatoes at just under nine pounds. Amazing since I bought & planted, oh maybe just under twenty pounds of seed potatoes.

Now have those two cartfuls. One for seed, goes without saying. One for food. Now to get them out of the carts and stored...probably get to that pending weather this week.

Other half of the taters to the kid.

So look hard Scott...LOOKIT!
Alta Blush has scab as does the Linzer Delekatess
French fingerling has skin that is coming off and has me pondering, is this normal for that variety...
and does it matter to me personally, hardly, eh

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Would you be able to sell a product that had on the occasion, off looks to it? Because WE use natural products as fertilizer here (used bedding gets composted)...scab is in the soil and in dry years, worse expression and in dirt you fertilize, there are certain varieties that are for sure to react and you get scabby taters...nothing wrong with them past their looks. But hey, people would likely not pay you what the grocery sells them at, $7 for 1.5 pounds? This is realistic thinking.

The little potato market has identicals in their plastic bags on sale at the grocery. I have no intentions of competing with that market. I have bought on occasion some of their taters...and hated that they probably don't do organic, that they would spray the potatoes with Round UP (nfi) like other commercial producers do...same is done to our grains in the commercial breads we buy...sprayed and killed with chemicals because they want to control their harvests. Yuck. And like I want to pay seven dollars for a pound and a half of rainbow coloured potatoes...not my price range when it comes to potatoes for us on a regular basis. Kinda like the rainbow carrots, pricey and pretty...and I know I can grow these here. What I would not pay for, I can grow and have tons of...spoil us rotten, eh.

Oct 4 - Yukon Gold and Amarosa...don't they look unreal glowing​

So I wanted our own healthful product and I think I have won at that this year potato wise.

October 5 ​

I am eyeing up that plot I sowed to oats this year...making plans for next year's potato crop. Can I repeat the success of this year in 2017?

Sept 30 - Start pulling, de-dirting and hauling oats to the geese and swans as treats...they love them
Oldster Jacobs get some too...help them stay in condition during cold weather​

Did very much like the taters that came off that ground, two rows tucked on the side where frost would not pocket and shut them down too soon.

Sep 23, 2016 - lookit the worms that thrive in this dirt by the oats...jest lookit!​

What fab thoughts I have about soil healthfulness. I am making a difference in the very dirt we own...a good difference in growing and replenishing it. Adding goodness...not taking from it.

October 5, 2016 ​

There is an over production of colourful taters. Right now, 1.5 pound which normally sells for $7 is on at the grocery for $5 on sale...so...tells me that flogging off their good harvest too right now. For a farm truck market, you'd have to get some type of cooler system to hold the potatoes over with...extend the selling season as you want to be following health codes. I can store my own potatoes quite well but are they to food laws...likely not.

Besides, Scott, what do I need more money for? I already work part time for $ to help pay for my sins keeping birds and dogs, livestock and my gardens--all the other whatnot's I spend money on and not generate a penny in revenues...I have thoughts about toning back the work (or play time I do). Money versus time to me...ha ha ha...place a value on that. I would be smarter to go to Mickey D's and work for minimum wage if I needed more money.

I don't need money, I need more time, need more energy...need more of that to enjoy my existence.

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I don't need any more income, and surely I don't want to be stuck sitting at some Farmer's Market...would drive me nutso doing that! Then explaining that when scab is on a few of the taters, it is not harmful past looks not so great. Don't have to explain scab to Rick, my kid (overjoyed to get some of Mom's taters!). But to sell a product, oh sure, you can nuke the taters with chemicals to make them look safe...but pretty is as pretty as skin deep...and likely toxic to our wellbeings too. LOL Oh gag me how we get produce to look perfect...

You know I have thought this over and I grow potatoes to please me, and it pleases me until I think I might trade the joy for $ instead. Blah.

I want more time not money and more energy to do what makes me happy...I have to do it myself and even if $ were free to hire help, it is ME that wants to do it all...not shuffle it off. Doing makes me joyous.

Now because I bothered with it...we eat potatoes of the kind I expect I could not warrant buying at the grocery AND just like the poultry we grow and harvest...we get a good premium product that in some cases, cannot be traded for mere money.

Pretty neato to up our standard of eating...with a little elbow grease and luck on our sides.

Thanks for the suggestion but a market flooded at the moment and with an inferior product...in my eyes at least! We eat alot of potatoes and we shall see if we can keep up with this bounty. LOL

Wow! Bunches and bunches of 'taters, and lovin' all the colors. Hope you have lots of potato recipes!

With these kinds...all you gotta do is be able to boil water...literally! All types right now taste like creamers...new potatoes...so they are beyond delicious.

Really haven't done much of anything but boil the taters...

Sep 29 - Boiled potatoes​

So one could take the leftover boiled taters and...

Sep 30 - Ppan fried leftover taters
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That boiling seems to be using up the ones that won't store (shovel hits, less than perfect shaped ones, etc. - use up the non-storable ones now) and fried some of the leftover boiled ones because I was overzealous with the boiled potatoes I did up that night prior.

Oct 5 - Pulled pork shoulder roast and homegrown boiled taters​

Did roast them once on Sept 23, BBQing, eh.

Sep 23, 2016​

Sep 29 - Baked potatoes on the new BBQ​

I think the best potato recipe (any recipe for homegrown) that does not mess with the true good flavour, that wins and should be done as much as possible to homegrown goodness.

Snow !

GORGOEUS, delightful, WONDERFUL!

October 7 - Totally wonderbar...Emmest can reach down for a drink any time she wants, Lacy loves pouncing on slippery toys...the BESTEST time is here and now...​

Girls and I are in absolute HEAVEN...heaven sent us SNOW and we are celebrating our good fortunes!

October 8 - Like grains of sand in the skies...the exodus of the geese... ​

Messy FALL can make like the geese and FLOCK OFF...messy, mud, ice, slick, groddy...GET LOST already and bring on the beauty of winter...wonderland!

Sep 30 - Fall leaf colours!​

Pretty fall time...but hey, fall makes a mess and who clears it up...us, we do. Bring on the White to cover it over with a blanket that makes it glorious to look upon. Not messy, not when Old Man Winter settles in here for goodness sakes!

Ohh, here's a thought that doesn't bear thinkin' - what if all the rain I have gotten today had come in the form of snow?!

Reason why I have already taken the rails down in front of the goose pens. All that rain we had each and every day this summer...that rain will be transformed into snow...I suspect we shall get another winter like 2014...SNOWmagedon repeated.

Suspect the snow that is here now, may not leave till maybe end of May...there has been years where I skipped being quick about removing the ornaments and that was when they got buried by white...could not find them and risked hazard with snow removal. Not doing that again. So most things have been tucky tucked...the plants yet to be buried in the garden, but they are mostly all by the veg garden gate now. Ornaments in the greenhouse...still got one shelf of dead tomatoes to remove, pots to dump out, but if I get caught on that...like whoop whoop, dunna care.

All of your critters would be under snow, so to speak

Scott

Gonna be a doozy this year. Sunshine but lots of white...need to get on that extra slice of booberry pie...thoughts to that and keeping myself in shovelling shape.

With so many choices, have you figured out which potato goes best with each type dish, or way it will be prepared?

As mentioned, all are boiling perfect now...then you get to do the more suited thing for each variety. The fingerlings are waxy, so make and hold selves together for best potato salad makers...the Amarosa (all red fingerling) makes a spectacular chip...think thin sliced and RED...how kewl is that! Also good for grilling.

All are good for boiling, waxy fingerlings for salads hold their shape, Caribe is suppose to be excellent as a tender baker, Russian Blue has good antioxidants and sautéed is good (steamed, roasted, mashed), Alta Blush is good mashing, baking, roasting, then some tolerate drought, better at not scabbing up if conditions warrant it. Some store better like Purple Caribe.

Dakota Pearl is suppose to make a great chip tater...looking at storage kinds for next season too. Candy cane has slight sweetness besides kewl looks. Do a Net search on seed potatoes if you are interested in narrowing some choices down on different types. In South America, these colours always were and tribes of people took great pride in having their own kinds of potatoes. For me, many types means whatever the weather and such...should get something to eat by harvest time. Yes?

A day early I know, but this way I am first!!!

(I always thought you guys had a much more sensible day for your celebration.
Yours is actually during the harvest!)

Thanks, eh!

Not early for us. We went to son's, I put a stuffed turkey on whilst I did up the chores, put it in a towel and cooler and vamoosed to his place for dinner.

T-Day Meal​

They provided the rest of the meal and I made gravy. Was great!

October 9​

Even snuck in pumpkin carving to add to the festivities.

HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE. please send turkey leftovers to me. I LOVE turkey.

Thanks DD!

Do you not have lots of places that serve a turkey dinner? Saw quite a few restaurants offering a turkey dinner on the bill boards...menus, usually has a roast beef or a turkey dinner too? I know, not the same as homemade but in a pinch?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada