This has been a unique gardening year for us. Although we love gardening and having fresh produce available, up to this year, it has been a hobby. Something we do because we want to. This year, I'm afraid it's going to become a necessity. Not because of job loss or anything along those lines. I'm afraid that the crazy weather (pick one: flooding-drought-fires-late frosts-unseasonable temperatures) this year is going to bring on food shortages and skyrocketing prices.
There. I said it. You can call me paranoid if you want to....but it's not paranoia if people really are out to get you.
So fear-mongering aside, this year we're gardening like our lives depend on it. This year, we're gardening for keeps and that means putting aside some of the fun, froo-froo stuff and planting hearty, calorie-rich crops that will keep through winter and reduce our ever-increasing food bill.
Enter the great sweet potato experiment.
Following a conversation with a cousin, I decided to try sweet potatoes and after a slow start, the plants are looking healthy and I'd hoped that we might have a crop large enough to at least get us through the holidays. Then I received the June/July edition of Mother Earth News and had those hopes dashed.
Apparently, sweet potatoes don't like Ohio so much.
Apparently our cool evenings really bother them.
Apparently, sweet potatoes like much warmer ground that Ohio is apt to enjoy in a typical summer. They want soil as hot as can be; like 80-100 degrees. At 70 degrees, the plants don't produce much. At 60 degrees, they're pretty much dormant.
I had no idea what our soil temperature was like, so in a fit of desperation, I took the old reliable digital meat thermometer out to the back 40 and plunged it into the ground.
67 degrees.
Well, horse feathers.
So here's what we did. The Mr. bought a package of nice thick transparent plastic sheeting. Oh, about 4 feet wide by 50 feet long. We cut it to the appropriate lengths, made small slits in the plastic and worked the plants through. We used rocks, boards, garden stakes, etc to weight down the edges to prevent heat from escaping out the sides. And prayed.
That was last Friday.
On Wednesday, following a couple sunny, 80 degree days and a couple really chilly (upper 50's) nights, I took the meat thermometer out and took another reading.
78 degrees!
It's working! The plastic is working! The predicted 90 degree weekend should really warm that soil and we may have a decent crop yet.
Now a question for you sweet tater growers out there:
Any suggestions or advice for properly curing sweet taters?
4 comments:
Great idea!! I am passing it on to our Co Op members. We are going sweet potatoes this year too.
I fear a rise in food cost too. Along with growing some of our own food.... I am working on building our food stockpile.
I wanted to share a website with you from some like minded folks. Sometimes a little hard core but you can find some great information there.
http://www.beforeitsnews.com/
Carolyn...we're doing the same thing...really hitting those commodities and trying to get stuffed stored up before prices soar any higher.
THanks for the link....I think I may have been there before, but I'm excited to check it out again.
Just found your blog.. not sure exactly where you are in Ohio but we are in SE Indiana near Cincy area. Have grown sweet potatoes for the last 2 years with no real problem. We try to start'em early and have to sometimes be creative with elec fence to keep the deer out of 'em. The vines that the deer munched on produced about 1/3 of what the other vines produced. Just watch the fall weather and cut the vines before the frost. We had so many last we gave away so much and canned some and still have some left we are eating them. I'm sure yours will do fine even in Ohio.
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