If you’ve ever had potatoes fresh out of the ground, you know what a treat they are. Unlike the store bought kind that are dry and starchy and mostly tasteless due to age, the recently harvested spuds are moist, creamy in texture and rich in flavor. The down side to this delight is harvest season runs mostly from July through August in Roanoke. That makes it tough to go back to grocery store fare. If you can resist the temptation to eat them all when they’re dug up (it’s not easy to do), they stay delicious for months and will probably still be fresher than the industrialized harvest selections well into the winter.
Our specialty is Adirondack blues. These are a great conversation piece not only for their delightful taste, but also for their color. Both skins and flesh are a deep purple, even after you cook them. They’re versatile too. You can boil them, bake them, saute and even use them in potato salads.
We also have a limited amount of Pontiac reds. These didn’t do as well as we hoped this year, so the potatoes are small, but equally fun and tasty.
Curiously, we’ve found the taste and size of potatoes is very weather dependent. Fortunately, this has been an ideal year for the size and flavor of the Adirondack blues. They’re big and delicious in 2018. Not so much for the Yukon golds.
In addition to potatoes, we currently have carrots, garlic, fresh herbs including sage, thyme, rosemary, oregano, parsley, dill and lavender as well as a small selection of heirloom tomatoes. We hope to be harvesting sweet potatoes in the next few weeks. We’ll also be planting fall crops including lettuces, radishes, peas, kale, Swiss chard and turnips soon to be ready in September and October.