growing potatoes

Sometime right before Christmas Julianna put a potato in a glass of water, convinced it would sprout.  I can't remember where she got the idea from.... maybe she saw it in a book?  But she was eager to "grow something" and we had a bag of potatoes on the porch, so it seemed okay by me.

That potato sat in our kitchen window for a month..... and it sprouted and sprouted and sprouted.  Every eye had dozens of little shoots growing and it was starting to get moldy, and a bit rotten looking too.  It sprouted so much that Julianna got tired of watching it. 

When it was time to head to Thailand (mid January) I was ready to chuck the potato.  But the trash can seemed a little harsh so I suggested Julianna plant it in our garden instead.  It was a balmy 40 degrees outside, and I know nothing about potato planting, and we were getting ready to leave town for a month... conditions seemed perfect for potato growing.  Ha! 

But how to plant?  In the last minute scramble to get ready to head to the airport I didn't have the time to google "planting potato sprouts" so I did what seemed best.... cut out the rotten chunk, and sent Julianna outside with a garden spade and absolutely no guidance whatsoever.  On the way to the airport I grabbed my phone from my carry-on bag and took this picture of her work.

A month later we were home Thailand and low-and-behold, that potato was growing.  It grew big vine-y shoots.  Matt thought maybe it was just growing ground cover, no real potato under the soil.

But yesterday afternoon he googled a few potato growing pics and decided it was time to dig up the produce.

There were potatoes under there!  Just three.  And they were small.  But still! Fun times for my garden girl.  Isaac and Lyds were pretty impressed too -

I probably don't need to clarify that we're eating them for dinner tonight :)