This spud's for you!

As promised, I'm kicking off the start of March with a gardening entry. It is or almost will be (depending on where you live) time to plant potatoes. Potatoes are a great vegetable to grow yourself since commercially grown potatoes are often full of pesticides and organic potatoes are usually expensive. Don't have a source for seed potatoes? Make your own! Just place some grocery store potatoes and toss them under your kitchen sink. Check on them every week or so until you see "eyes" sprouting. When you're ready to plant, cut the potato into chunks and plant, eye side up, making sure each piece you plant has at least one sprouted eye on it. Plant potatoes 4-6 weeks before your area's last frost date.

Exhibit A: potatoes after sprouting under the sink

If you don't have a garden, plant them in buckets or trash cans. Did you know that a  20 gallon trash can can yield 20 pounds of potatoes?

• For a 20 gallon trash can, 2 to 3 potatoes or potato pieces will suffice. Put the potatoes eye-side up in the container and cover lightly with potting medium, no deeper than two inches.
• When your potato plants gets about 4 to 6 inches tall, put more potting medium over it- totally bury it. Continue burying your potato plants until your container is full. When your potato plants turn brown, you may harvest the potatoes.

*Make sure you drill holes in the bottom of the container for drainage.
*If you love expensive varieties, such as fingerling potatoes, buy a bag of them at the store and sprout and plant them yourself. I did this last year with Peruvian blue and fingerlings from Kroger!