Things I've learned...

Yesterday I learned about potato blight.  It seems that the part of the potato plant that lives above ground - the very part of the potato that feeds the actual potato - will get a disease called blight and turn on the potato and ruin it.  Big potato growers (big growers - not growers of big potatoes) spray the potato tops and kill them off.  The potatoes stay safe underground while the plant and it's horrible disease dies.  We are not a big potato grower.  We are a small operation that only harvests a couple thousand pounds a year.  We do not use chemicals.  Thus - the tops to all the potatoes must be cut off and removed far far away from the bottoms.  Thatsalotta bending and stooping.  After about 8 hours frolicking among the potatoes I crawled back to the house on my hands and knees.

 potatoes before beheading 

  potatoes after beheading  

Other things I learned was that the definition of grass and weeds is different.  Peter said - toss the tops into the grass.  I learned he did NOT mean toss the tops into the weeds.  Of course.. I didn't learn that until I'd completed 4 rows.  I thought I had cleverly clarified his intent by asking.. "do you mean the near grass or the far grass?"  I actually meant the weeds vs. the grass (because I KNEW what I meant).  His reply "the near grass" meant the grass near the weeds, not the grass near the trees.  So of course.. I put the potato tops in the weeds, which was my "near grass" and not in the "near grass" which was the grass not by the trees. 

I learned proper communication can be a time saver. 

I've also learned that frogs and toads like to live among the potatoes.  My husband - being a 12 year old at heart - collected all the frogs and toads we found.  I even found a big fat toad today to add to the collection (as a belated birthday gift). I kept it in the kitchen sink until Peter came home from work  (Happy Birthday!  Here's a toad!).  As I type this, there happens to be a bucket-o-amphibians sitting next to me.   They will be photographed, admired, talked to and held and then put in the toad and frog relocation program.