Yesterday I dug all the potatoes that were in grow bags. I really dumped the contents of the bag into raised beds that needed more soil, then retrieved the potatoes. I don’t grow potatoes in the same soil year after year but can re-use the soil for something else. I had already pulled out probably 10 or 15 pounds but now they’ve all been dug (or dumped) from the bags. I still have one 4 x 8 bed of potatoes but they aren’t ready yet. I’m happy they aren’t all ready at the same time . . that would be a lot of work. As it is, I’m canning one canner load today.
For the new potatoes, I scrape them instead of peeling them. That way, I don’t lose nearly so much potato.
My preferred way of canning them is in pints because that’s enough for us for one meal but at Walmart the other day, quart jars were $1 less than pints. Go figure! I can put twice as much in a quart so it makes no sense to use 24 pints when 12 quarts would do. I have now canned 32 pints and the rest will go into quarts. I figure if I want just enough for a meal, I’ll use half the quart and save the rest in the fridge for the next day. Canned potatoes make the best air fried French fries and we can always have a plate of fries.
Here’s the 16 pints from today’s canning session.
Excuse the mess. I’m canning in the garage!
Another thing . . I can process 14 quarts or 16 pints in a full load for the canner. Makes more sense to can 14 quarts, unless you’re the one scraping all those potatoes.
I’m guessing I have enough potatoes dug to can 28 quarts so the plan is to can 14 quarts tomorrow and 14 quarts on Thursday . . and hope the potatoes left in the 4 x 8 bed aren’t ready for at least a week! 🙂