Harvest of Souls

Well, potatoes actually. I think I let some of them sit in the ground too long. It's been so dry and hot lately causing the ground to heat up that perhaps some of them towards the surface were beginning to bake in the dirt. They got all wrinkly and squishy feeling. But overall it was a good crop. I'm estimating around 240 to 300 lbs worth. All of that from a few small sacks of seed potatoes sliced up and planted in the spring. I've had people tell me that you have to plant the seed potatoes whole. Like the plants somehow need all the life-giving power contained in the complex sugars of the starch inside. But I'm looking at these seed potatoes and seeing how small some of them are and how big the others are and thinking if these tiny ones can produce a plant that will later grow its own nice sized potatoes, there's no reason that a segment of the larger ones can't do the same. Just as long as they've got an eye that will spring forth a new plant. Besides, my dad, who learned this from his granddad, had always halved and quartered his seed potatoes to make more plants. I remember one year, perhaps when I was in high school or junior high, that my dad basically peeled the potatoes, paying close attention to the eyes, and planted those thin slivers that still produced a nice crop. It's no different than plucking the seeds from an apple or a watermelon. You don't have to plant the whole watermelon to get a vine. You just need one tiny seed. They key is fertile soil. And plenty of water. Though when the potato plant has flowered and begins to die, it's wise to stop watering. If the potatoes stay wet in the ground for very long they'll begin to rot. We lost almost a whole crop like that one year. It just rained and rained and rained and we finally had to dig through the mud and salvage what few potatoes we could. So is there a lesson in all of this? Yeah, probably, but I’ll let you figure it out for yourself. I don’t have the energy today for deep thought and probable wisdom.