GEM #20: Recycle Your Potatoes

This winter, we were confronted with a whole lot of potatoes, courtesy of Boston Organics.  We used as many as we could, but inevitably the pantry began to fill with questionable specimens.  Some of these sprouted large stalks about six inches long, with some withered-looking leaves clinging to the stalks.  I don't have a picture but I found this one on the internet, which is considerably healthier-looking than what we had:


We happened to have a big pot sitting around, so figured there wasn't much to lose and stuck four of these in the dirt, with the stalk sticking just a bit above ground.  After a generous watering, nothing happened, so we figured the experiment was a failure.  But then...one by one, these tubers started to perk up and even to start putting on new leaves!  After a few weeks, we had this:


Then a stretch of pleasant, balmy weather hit the area and our little spuds exploded!  Pretty soon they the vines were practically falling over under their own weight:


By July 4th, the vines were looking pretty peaked, thanks in part to the brutally hot temperatures.  I was also getting a bit concerned about late blight, because of the way they were withering away.  This was an experiment, after all, so I let them linger a bit longer.  Finally, this past week was designated as harvest time.  One of the four potatoes turned out to be a dud, but from the others:


Bottom Line: We might have gotten lucky, but this is an experiment definitely worth repeating!