# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Gardening >  Maters and taters

## rebel

Planted the taters and started the mater seed.

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## Rick

It was 3 degrees this morning. 3 degrees. Ugh.

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## madmax

I waited too long to plant the tomato seeds.  I'll just have to get seedlings.  I saw an incredible amount of potatoes come out of Alaskan gardens when we were up there.

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## rebel

Its raining here this morning. Hopefully I can get around to planting the squash and onion in the next day or two.

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## crashdive123

Probably no garden for us this year.  Lots of traveling planned.

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## LowKey

Have the onions and artichokes seeds started under lights a month ago. 
Trying Roselle shrubs again this year (iffy things) and have some alpine strawberry seedlings up.
Next weekend is the eggplant, broccoli and cabbage seeds.
'maters don't get started until mid-March.

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## rebel

Same, mid March. Started mine from seed in the green house. Well see what happens. In the past I havent had much luck with tomato seed. They come up and die. If they all make it Ill have a hundred plants. lol

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## bubba man

you`ll say what your doing  as far as a garden and i can`t tell where you live  i live in N.C. and i`d like to compare it to where  everyone lives - sorry i just had to vent

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## rebel

Matters are upF8FDD2B6-D764-4080-9073-5AF264A3AF97.jpg

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## rebel

So are the tattersE15AAED6-3785-4CF8-A974-45B3C70C70BE.jpg

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## crashdive123

Looking good.

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## chiggersngrits

That's some good looking dirt in that tater field.

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## Yelmquizz

New here, just planted a few tomatoes earlier this morning. I'll plant a few more tomorrow, I am also planning to clean a bit and put some things on a cabinet. Thankfully I just bought a folding wheelbarrow https://gardeningfacts.org/best-whee...arrow-reviews/  that will help me a lot in lifting so much pieces of stuff.

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## rebel

Look out sneak2D2B59C8-7D54-4377-A0C0-54550637B2D2.jpg

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## rebel

In 2-3 weeks Im going to have an estimated 1000 potatoes. I can maybe give half to family, friends and neighbors. That still leaves a lot to put up. Do to the high water table we dont have a basement or root cellar. I was thinking about trying the trash can storage for some, just to see if it works. The rest I need to can and/or freeze. Canning would be labor intensive and pricey for tatters with the jars and lids. So, Im thinking about making bags of French fries and some grated for hash browns for freezing. I dont have a dehydrator and not keen on running the oven for this. Any thoughts or other ideas?

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## kyratshooter

1,000 potatoes is not really that much, perhaps 100 lbs or so.  If you lay them in the sun to dry, inspect them and eat the damaged ones quickly, and keep them cool and dry 100 pounds should be eaten up pretty quickly.

Probably freezing what you can not eat within a couple of months is the best choice of all the storage methods.

I have been on a carb free diet for years but I understand that other folks eat a lot of carbs when they are available.  Two people eating two pounds of spuds, baked, boiled, smashed or fried each day will go through 100 pounds of potatoes before they can rot anyway.

If you eat just one pound the supply will probably be gone within 2-3 months so you could keep them in any dry place out of the sunlight.  Potatoes last a long time if you don't get them wet and sprout them, even then you can remove the sprouts and eat them anyway.

https://www.survivalsullivan.com/potatoes-storage/

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## rebel

Ok, thanks for the help

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## BENESSE

@ rebel......Sorry, couldn't resist. :Whistling: 

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## rebel

lol, might be true but, the misses broke her arm a few weeks ago. Probably hard to dig with one arm.

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## rebel

Ive been working on irrigation 609C97CE-89B1-4E1F-900B-14C5A9AE2A6D.jpg

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## Rick

I'll bet Crash and I can supply the water if you can supply the beer.

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## rebel

Works for me. Since it isnt done, what size yoke do yall need?

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## rebel

The misses said I looked sexy running the vacuum. I said, hold on, let me get my high heels on.

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## rebel

> 1,000 potatoes is not really that much, perhaps 100 lbs or so.  If you lay them in the sun to dry, inspect them and eat the damaged ones quickly, and keep them cool and dry 100 pounds should be eaten up pretty quickly.
> 
> Probably freezing what you can not eat within a couple of months is the best choice of all the storage methods.
> 
> I have been on a carb free diet for years but I understand that other folks eat a lot of carbs when they are available.  Two people eating two pounds of spuds, baked, boiled, smashed or fried each day will go through 100 pounds of potatoes before they can rot anyway.
> 
> If you eat just one pound the supply will probably be gone within 2-3 months so you could keep them in any dry place out of the sunlight.  Potatoes last a long time if you don't get them wet and sprout them, even then you can remove the sprouts and eat them anyway.
> 
> https://www.survivalsullivan.com/potatoes-storage/


 the misses and I eat one tatter between us a day. 👍 got it going on!

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## rebel

I dug up a 100 pounds this week. 200 hundred to go. It takes about 6-7 weeks.tatters that is

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## crashdive123

Sounds great.  Looks like you will have a fantastic harvest.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

#1 wife got mad at me on the second picking of green beans because I picked them and she wanted to do it..  She told me that I knew how much she likes to pick the green beans and I evidently deprived her of the joy associated with that task....  So, I did what any good husband would do... I stopped picking them. That was a couple of weeks ago.. Now I come in from the garden every day and say, "Green Beans are ready to be picked.... again...."  I hope it's all fun...

Thing is, she doesn't understand that if you leave even one bean on the bush to mature the bush stops producing.... we wouldn't want that.  So, I go along and make sure all of the beans are picked.  I water them every other day too.  

We'll have yellow squash by the end of the week.  Still a few turnips.  Broccoli is done for.  Carrots are going strong still.  Tomatoes and peppers are lagging, not sure why.  Lima beans, purplehull peas, zucchini, kershaw, cucumbers and cantaloup  and MORE green beans are all up.   Red potatoes are ready to be dug.  

Turning out to be a pretty good year.  

I know we don't eat 300# of potatoes in a year....  Sweet potatoes maybe, otherwise, no...


Alan

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## rebel

We gave away all but 5 pounds. I made some mashed potatoes. Theyre great! The next morning I had potato cakes with apple sauce. Theyre great too! Lol

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## madmax

One of my cherry tomato plants has blooms.   One  Big Boy has a few.  2 kinds of herbs have sprouted... I haven't the foggiest what they are.  Lol.

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## Rick

maybe one of these days....

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Actually, it got up to 74 today....finally.

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## rebel

Meat plants are closing. Dang it. I dont like killing animals.

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## rebel

Those spca commercials tear me up. I want to kick some retard ***.

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## madmax

It's a mindset rebel.  Name your pets.  Not your livestock.

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## BENESSE

They call it "depopulation", rebel. 
Another gutless euphemism is "harvesting". You'd think they were talking about corn or wheat not killing live creatures.

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## Rick

Never fear. They have been kept open. Bacon sammiches have been saved!!!!!!!! Bacon sammiches have feelings too, you know.

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## rebel

Got some. Looks like another week will be just right.480E55A4-0805-45B7-9FBD-2D545A0FE35E.jpg

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## rebel

I guess were keeping some DA37A425-F413-4FF1-B62A-DA053E4DFE12.jpg

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## crashdive123

Nice................

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## josha

We gave away all but 5 pounds. I made some mashed potatoes. Theyre NOT AS GOOD AS SPAM.

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## rebel

> We gave away all but 5 pounds. I made some mashed potatoes. Theyre NOT AS GOOD AS SPAM.


Not much is. I like pan fried spam.

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## Rick

I like spam just about anyway you can fix it. I don't like it posted, though.

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## Solar Geek

Sorry so late to this thread. Planted most all of our 29 raised beds by June 1 (taters went in 4/25 even though it was bitter cold, the soil registered at 50-55F at depth). Maters went in over many days - done on 6/15. 
1*71 linear feet of taters* with only yukon and reds. All from our last year taters that went to seed. Fighting the Colorado Beetle now but all are blossoming so hopeful

OK I know this is hard to believe as there is only DH and me, but I *PLANTED 421 TOMATO PLANTS AND ALL ARE LIVING*. Counted this week. In my defense, last year I planted 114 and we had terrible weather and a very lousy crop. Where I usually can 30-40 quarts, last year only got enough for 8 quarts. And most years I 'sun-dry' to chewiness about 5 gallon freezer bags and we didn't get a full one. (we had record cold in May last year and then massive flooding in our county so I was worried it would happen again.)

About 72 cabbages 1/2 red, 1/2 green. We slice into 1" thick rounds and roast as cabbage steaks so love these. Beans are growing but I will do a second crop. Carrots failed already (too cold after they started to come up)so will start again when I pull early potatoes. 

Anyhow, apologies for not being here at all for so long but unrelated to the pandemic we have had 3 family deaths and dementia is affecting my inlaws and we are on call a lot with them but live a 4.5 hour round trip so I just dropped off the face of the earth here.

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## Rick

My condolences on your losses. I sure do understand about living at distance from family. I was four hours one way from mom and dad so when their time of need came it was pretty difficult. I don't begrudge a single second but distance does make it harder. 

Sounds like you have been incredibly busy with the "farm". What a bounty you will harvest out of that! 

"They planted seeds in the fields and vineyards, and they had a good harvest." That will be my prayer for you.

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## Solar Geek

@rick Thank you so much. It was 1/month all sudden and hard. Uncle who we luckily had just seen, fell at home and died the next day. Dear cousin (we lived above them as children so very close) was at my place for a party 9/21 - fine- diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (from which her dad died) and lasted 6 weeks- dead on Black Friday. Just really sad time. 

We truly blessed in that DH's parents, though very fragile, some dementia, and lots of cancers/ill health ARE still with us. Getting them here on our homestead for 7/3-7/6. Our wonderful sister in law is going from Madison to Milwaukee (1 hour) then back up to our place (2+ hours) then beverages (!!) and food for her and then home to Madison so another 1.5 hours just to get them here. We were going to do the 5 hour rd-trip (due to holiday Chicago traffic) but she insisted. Looking forward to walking them both through the garden (with walkers...) and a very relaxing time. Working to finalze planting for later maters and may SNEAK some early taters for our holiday meals. 

My poor mom totally healthy at 88, Thank God, lives in Florida and cannot come up nor can we go down. Had to cancel 2 family vacations with our DDs and their spouses in both April and May due to "Covidia"

Very glad to have the garden for distraction. I do cook, bake  and give meals to parishioners who need them so will really appreciate if I have a big harvest. They seem to like my "Seamus Kennedy Chili" (bottle o'beer  in each pot!) and lasagna so all cooking takes MATERS!

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## crashdive123

So sorry for your losses SG.

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## Rick

I love Madison. I had an office I supported in Sun Prairie for a number of years. As well as Plymouth, Wausau and Portage. Spent most of my time in Sun Prairie, though. Wisconsin is a great state, yea, for sure.

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