Potatoes

Last year's potato crop was flooded out, the year before was over run with volenteer sunflowers. This year we decided on a lazy bed. {I think someone needs to edited the lazy bed entry} It took some work to get the straw down onto the mounds without it blowing away in the Kansas wind, but we managed. And it turned out to be the best thing for us.

Yesterday I noticed that the potato stalks had dried up and died. It was time to starting gathering potatoes. I began to pull off the straw and throw the potatoes into the basket. We ended up with a full bushel {50 lbs} {22.68kg}. And we still have yet to dig.

I am completely amazed at the sheer amounts we are ending up with. We spent $8 USD {6 EUR} on seed potatoes. In the grocery store you can spend $5 USD {3 EUR} on 5 lbs {2.2 kg}. So we just saved ourselves a bit of money. And with the lazy bed, there was little of the way of work.

I am looking forward to the potato soups, the Irish stews, and potato pancakes that I will be making with all these gorgeous potatoes.

I also canned 5 pints of French red Onion Soup. First time I had ever done that. I didn't seem to run into any problems, as the soup came out very tasty.

French Onion soup

4 tbsp butter
2 med. onions {I used red} very thinly sliced
1 tbsp flour
½ cup Sherry cooking wine
1 quart beef broth

Brown onions with butter in a sauce pan. Sprinkle with flour. Cover then simmer for 20 minutes. Stirring once in awhile. Pour in the wine. While that's simmering, heat up the broth. add to onions and boil the mix slowly for 5 minutes. Pour into canning jars. Process for 20 minutes at 10 lbs. {Makes 2 ½ pints}

Sorry no pictures today, batteries in my camera are dead, and I won't get into town until Friday

To everyone that sponsored me in the blogathon. You should be gettting an e-mail form blogathon.org with the link to make a donation to Farm Aid tomorrow. Don't forget, please.