Yesterday I tried to clean up the failed potato patch — only to discover 22 pounds of healthy red potatoes under the straw.  The plants didn’t flower, and they gave off every sign of miserable failure.  To find such a harvest under the straw was unexpected.

A very happy thing I learned in school is that people in France call potatoes the “apples of the earth.”  There is such hopeful beauty in that phrase.  A dirt-covered root can be cleaned-up and admired as something delicious and sweet.

Also while I was digging, I felt ever-aware of how fragile these “fruits of the earth” can be.  The wrong press of my spade into the earth might hurt them.  (I believe that every human being should try to dig up a root at some point.  It’s very humbling.)

I was so tired after digging out the potatoes, and I wanted to go in and shower (I was so dirty!), but I wondered about the pommes on the tree out back so I went out to bring in the few that were left on the tree.  They are Akane apples —  a bright-tasting, very crisp, tart, slightly sweet, early ripening variety.  I like them.  This is the first year the tree has produced so I hope we learn to tend it well.

Since the potatoes revealed themselves and the pickles have arrived (separate post!), we’ll have a regular farm day this coming Saturday.  Think good thoughts toward the sun because she helps the squash and beans grow.  The chard, onions, and beets know how to grow even with little sun.