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Potato Season
09/26/2002
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Gardeners who choose the right crops can do
well in Alaska's short season. Commentator Amy Mayer likes to focus on potatoes.
Last year we dedicated one-quarter of the garden to potatoes. This year we've got an entire
8-foot by 12-foot bed just for them. We carefully stomped a path across the bed in each
direction, preparing it for four varieties. Then we planted seed potatoes from a local organic
farmer.
Next, we waited. I tried to remember how long it took the potatoes to overtake the whole
garden last year. I watered the dark soil, impatient for signs of life to emerge. And I
imagined the 100 pounds of potatoes we anticipated.
Then, it happened. Green stalks poked through, leaves grew and soon each of the four quadrants
offered a near guarantee of potatoes to come. I tromped along the path dumping gallons of
water on the plants, marveling at how much they grew each day.
We bring in most of our vegetables in late August. But the real finale of the season is the
potato harvest. It can wait 'til after a light frost, so when you dig up potatoes, the ground
is cold and your fingers get numb as you plunge them deeper into the soil. One local gardener
calls it "dirty Christmas" because every potato feels like a present. And they just keep
coming. I'm always amazed by how many an individual seed potato spawns. We're hoping our
September Christmas will land us enough potatoes to last us through the winter…while we dream
of the wonders of next summer's garden.
Potatoes are coming up for Amy Mayer in Fairbanks Alaska. The Weather Notebook comes to you
through the support of Subaru of America and the National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
About Amy Mayer
http://www.kuac.org/amybio.htm
Visit Amy's home station and TWN affiliate, KUAC in Fairbanks AK
http://www.kuac.org/
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