Women’s work

 


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I've been looking at these seed potatoes for weeks now. 

I searched high and low for Purple Majesty this year, I was ON A MISSION. Absolute dedication. I've heard all about them. They're deep indigo all the way through and they roast splendidly, but the mash, oh the mash, I've heard people virtually weeping in potato growing forums about the non-gluey perfectly indigo quality of the mash. (What do you mean, you don't hang out in online gardening forums? What are you DOING? The passion is unparalleled.) 

Anyway, Purple Majesty haven't really hit Australia yet. There's one guy growing them in Victoria, it seems, I found him and begged for a few kilograms of this year's harvest. And of course if I grow a paddock of them it'll turn out that no one will want to buy them. Purple potatoes people! Don't you think it's a rocking idea? No? 

Ah well. I'd eat 'em.

So I settled with Sapphires (purple-through but don't mash well) and Toolangi Delight (deep purple skin.) Plus pontiacs, kipflers and colibans. Not a huge planting, enough for us and hopefully a long-table farm lunch or two. 



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I went out with a big iron hoe that looks like a pick axe and dug a trench and planted my spuds and because so many things right now have started but are never ending or are in process or are a bit endless, it was so immensely satisfying to actually finish a job. I found a thirty metre hose and carefully connected it to the riser on the nearest water trough and watered them in, only to find Dad chortling into his beard. Who waters a paddock of potatoes? Not actual farmers apparently. You wait for rain, because around here at this time of year, it comes at least every three weeks. 

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Won't hurt them. And there's an enormous amount of confidence in planting things that have been grown in this soil on this farm for a hundred and fifty years. Besides, it's the meat birds who fertilised it, and the pigs who dug it up, so it's nice to know our upstart sustainable farming ideas will be what gives us not only a kick-ass yield, but nutrient density too. 

 
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And blue potatoes. We'll be eating those by the kilogram. 

xxx

xxx

 

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