Pumpkins vs. Potatoes

Our desire for convenience and industry's willingness to provide those conveniences has separated us from our food sources. Most of us no longer know how to grow our own food. Even fewer of our children do.

As a kid, I helped Mom and Dad in the garden but wasn’t really interested until I had my own garden space. Not knowing any better back then, I used chemical pesticides and fertilizers. I have only recently learned that the fertilizer I used was made from fossil fuels (petroleum or natural gas) and that the portion that’s not taken up by the plants (which is the larger portion) leeches into our streams and rivers destroying water habitats.

Only one of my grandchildren lives in the same town as me, so last year I thought I should do what I could to get him interested in gardening, and learning where our food really comes from. He’s interested in science, so he was excited about the idea.

I thought pumpkins would be fun for him to grow. So I prepared a place in the garden for one hill (that’s enough for the whole extended family.) Our hill produced about 20 large good-looking pumpkins. He took home two for jack-o-lanterns, we gave away about 16 to family members. I kept one for Halloween, cooked the other and froze its flesh. He helped me make pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and proudly took home one pie. Mixing things together in the kitchen and ending up with something good to eat was like magic!

He tends to notice patterns, routines, and seems to expect repetition, so I expected he would want to plant pumpkins again this year. They take up so much garden space, and even though I have made pumpkin pies 3 times, I still have a lot of pumpkin in the freezer. Instead of pumpkin, I think we’ll plant multicolored potatoes this year.

Anxious to see the color of the flesh of my seed potatoes as described in books that I have read and the description in the ad, I cut them into chunks to let them cure for a few days before planting. I think these colorful potatoes will be fun and educational for him to plant, grow, harvest, and eat.



When I asked him yesterday if he’d like to help me plant blue potatoes, his face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. The forecast calls for rain this weekend, so tonight I put them in the refrigerator; we’ll have to wait another week or two.