Greg Lutovsky of Irish Eyes Garden Seed
…Yeah, I didn’t know what that meant either! But then a couple of weeks ago (in a healthy does of reality after the fantasy of the Flower Show) I stopped by Emerald City Gardens to hear Leda Langley of Langley Fine Gardens talk about growing vegetables at home. I’m supposed to be somewhat of an expert on this topic (my latest book, Growing Your Own Vegetables, is due out in May 2009 from Sasquatch Books.) But Leda is a dear friend and her talk would also give me an excuse to catch up with Jay and Andy at ECG.
Note: bless their hearts, these guys are running their nursery on the former site of Fremont Gardens; there couldn’t possible have been a more challenging year to start a nursery in this area but they’ve recently celebrated one year (!!!) and the future looks bright. Put them on your list of small, neighborhood nurseries to support this year.
Chitting potatoes is the process of exposing seed potatoes to warmth and light to give the tuber a running start on the season by encouraging the eyes to sprout. This is the one time when you actually want the potato skin to green up as generally, an olive cast to the potato itself indicates the presence of a harmful nerve toxin; remember, spuds are members of the Solanacea , that is the Nightshade family which also includes tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers as well as – you got it – deadly nightshade.
Emerald City had a great selection of seed potatoes. I selected Butterfinger, a thin skinned, late season fingerling with light russeting on the skin and a nutty-tasting, firm yellow flesh; OK, true confession, I chose it because I love Butterfinger candy bars but hardly ever allow myself one. ECG also got their hands on a good supply of a Northwest heirloom potato called Ozette. This late season fingerling was introduced to the Macah Nation people around 1791 by South American explorers who briefly settled on the Olympic peninsula; we think of them as oh-so American, but potatoes are actually native to South and Central America.
Irish Eyes Garden Seed is local wholesale purveyor of seed potatoes, garlic, onion, shallot, flower and vegetable seed, including many heirloom varieties; many of them certified organic. This morning Seattle Times ran an article about the booming seed market in our return to Victory gardens, 2009 recession style! Seed Companies have a Bumper Crop of Customers.
Greg & Sue Lutovsky, the family behind this bustling business in Ellensburg, are crazy busy handling orders and phone calls from vendors and new gardeners alike. (That’s Greg in the photo above that accompanied this morning’s article. I repeat, Farmers are the new Firemen)
Hard times have us all looking for ways to save on food. A potato crop fits the bill neatly, generously producing about 10-15# of absolutely delicious, easily stored, vitamin-packed produce for every pound of seed potatoes planted. Here are chitting instructions from the Irish Eyes Garden Seed:
The method is simple: spread the seed tubers in open-top crates, boxes or flats, one layer deep with the “seed end” uppermost. (If you’ll closely observe a seed potato, you’ll notice that one end was attached to the plant, the other end has a larger number of eyes from which the sprouts emerge. This end with the eye cluster is called the seed end.) The flats are kept in a warm place (70 degrees F.) where light levels are medium in intensity (bright shade). The warmth stimulates the development of strong sprouts from the bud eye clusters, which in the presence of light, remain stubby and so are not easily broken off. Usually seed potatoes are greened up starting a week or two before planting.
Chitting potatoes, Ozette on left
I’ve got my taters in an egg carton in a kitchen window where I carefully inspect them everyday for signs of life…they don’t need this close monitoring but a gardener has to sort of look for tasks to do this early in the spring. (Give me a few months and I won’t even be recoiling the hose or putting all my tools back in the shed – I know, “bad gardener!”) Leda said her farming household always makes a ritual of planting their potatoes on Saint Patricks day; I’m not sure I can garner much enthusiasm from my husband and kids, let alone anything approaching a “ritual” – I sort of picture skirts, boots, a special shovel and bated breath as the first clods are turned – but I’m sure everyone will dig in when we get our first batch of spuds! Ummmmm, hashbrowns, French potato salad, roasted, steamed….
* Photo of Greg Lutovsky by Jon Lok, The Seattle Times
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Funny, I posted about the Times article today too, although not nearly so thoroughly! I got potato starts from Irish Eyes but am a newbie grower – figure I need to get a bed set before I start encouraging them to sprout! I got Yukon Golds because they are sweeter than sweet, and a blue variety because, well, they just look so awesome in Salade Nicoise! Thanks for the info, I hope I figure it out!
I’ve always thought about chitting my potatoes, but have never got around to it. This was just the reminder I needed to go buy some potatoes and encouraging them to sprout. We’re planning on eating the last of our potato harvest this weekend!
thanks for the exact info i was looking for. the potatoes in the pics above look beautiful
this will be my first time planting taters. I ordered 6 organic yukon gold seed potatoes through the mail, got them today and they only have the tiniest eyes showing and i wanted to know how to get them to “get going”! never have problems with the ones growing in the bag from the store that I plan to eat, before i get a chance to eat them! LOL.
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