Growing Organic Potatoes

We hosted a local Girl Scout troop at our Neighborhood Celebration Weekend in April. They set up a table and taught people how to grow their own organic potatoes, and gained quite a following doing so. Here is their teaching on the subject:

Hello fellow potato enthusiasts,

 

Thank you so much for stopping by our booth at the Hassett Hardware Store Neighborhood Weekend Event. We really enjoyed talking with all of you, and we're so incredibly excited that you have shown an interest in living a greener, healthier, more potato-filled life. We sincerely hope that these gardening techniques help you to live this new life happily and easily.

Growing potatoes is a simple and fun activity to do with kids and by yourself. First take the seed potato that we gave you at the event (if you somehow lost the potato, don't worry just buy another organic seed potato and you will be completely ready to go) and cut it into to pieces that each have two eyes apiece. Place those pieces in the sun for about a day or so until the eyes begin to produce sprouts. Once that happens you are ready to plant them. Place each potato chunk about an inch below a layer of soil and several inches apart from one another so that the potatoes won't touch when they are full grown. You can also add some fertilizer to help your soil become richer in nutrients so that your potatoes will thrive, however fertilizer is not necessary. Once you've planted your potatoes you simply need to water and let them grow. Make sure that your potatoes continue to stay below the surface and cover them up with fresh soil, if needed, because if potatoes are exposed to too much sun they can become green, slightly toxic, and not-at-all fun to eat. You will begin to notice after a while that green sprouts have come out of the soil, this is totally normal, your potatoes will be ready to harvest once the green sprouts die. 

Here is a link to the instructional video on how to grow potatoes in a garbage can, that we mentioned to some of you at our booth: <http://www.almanac.com/video/growing-potatoes-trash-can>

 

Now that you have fresh potatoes all you need is some ideas of what to do with them. While we are huge fans of  baked and mashed potatoes, there are so many other amazing things that you can make. Here are a couple links to some scrumptious recipes:

Baked French Fries: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-baked-french-fries/

Potato Salad: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/grandma-jeans-potato-salad-recipe.html

Three Cheese Garlic Scalloped Potatoes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Three-Cheese-Garlic-Scalloped-Potatoes/Detail.aspx?evt19=1

Cheddar Potato Puffs: http://southernfood.about.com/od/potatocasserolerecipes/r/bl61109c.htm

 

- Girl Scout Troop 31009

Buy One Get One Free Paint Sale May 17 and 18, 2014

Spellbound in Seattle

I got to visit Seattle for the first time when I went to my self-compassion seminar last month and I fell in love. The clouds! The market! The Sound!

Did you know that Seattle is host to a huge, noisy, crazy-cool-shops filled Public Market Center? I may be the only visitor not to know this (or the fact that Dale Chihuly has one of his biggest permanent public displays over by the Space Needle, but we'll get to that later) and I think my joy in discovering it, completely without expectation, made the whole thing even more delightful.

I was jumping up and down and would have been running ahead yelling at

my friends to follow, but I was solo, so I had to restrain myself to just beaming madly at all the fishmongers, jewelry sellers and market-stall owners. The guy who sold me my postcards surely thought I was a little unstable, I was so excited and grateful for my $1 worth of memorabilia. Then again, he's never seen me at work, getting all overjoyed at someone on our staff dressing up for a holiday or really wowing a customer - my threshold for giddy excitement is lower than that of most normal adults.

I must have spent nearly three hours wandering around, discovering a Native American jewelry store with an incredible pink sapphire that was about eight carats, set in white gold with diamonds. It was only $6500 (I showed considerable restraint - not to mention I didn't have that kind of money to spend on a sapphire). I did indulge in some lovely, handmade, organic, local lavender products from All Things Lavender- if you enjoy lavender and don'thave a local supplier, check them out. I stocked my hotel room with fresh fruit and some delicious Bumble Bars. I found my way down an incredibly old, wooden gangway into the underground part of the market with great local art; a thrift shop with the best selection of handkerchiefs and tea towels I've seen since I was in the Midwest; a bookstore, an architect's office with a stellar water-front view, a record store (with people in it!) and a fortune teller who was un-fortunately closed for the day.

- Jocelyn Lovelle