Hilling Potatoes

Early this afternoon I worked in our garden planting a third crop of lettuce, more carrots, bush beans and zinnias. It was raining lightly; a perfect day for working in the garden.

Last week Taite and I went to open house at Sugartown Garden. We had a lovely visit and we learned that they were looking for help during open work hours Sundays 2-4. Taite was very excited about this opportunity and talked about her "work" all week. Unfortunately she spiked a fever yesterday and has not yet recovered so she could not join me to Sugartown today.

Anna and I headed over there at about 2:30. It was hard to leave unfinished work at home to go work on some else's garden, but it felt right. The people who I met there last weekend were so kind and seemed so excited about sharing. When we arrived just one other mom and child were their to help the two organizers. Anna and I were put to the task of hilling potatoes. I had never hilled potatoes before and was happy to learn all about it. Apparently if sunlight finds the potatoes underground then they turn green and inedible. As the plants grow you mound dirt at the base of the plants so as not to let in the sunlight.

While we hilled potatoes, the other family left leaving just the four of us. A bit later we were joined by friends. Anna and Z played in the sandbox and M and I moved on to thinning chard. We came home with plenty of freshly pick swiss chard to stir-fry at dinner and some chard plants to add to our garden patch at home.

I'm so glad we took the time to go over to work. I learned a lot and the camaraderie was wonderful.