Potatoes are weeds that we eat.

It was the perfect day to garden.  Most farmers would talk about the benefits of rising at dawn to beat the sun and make certain that all was right.  In our suburban farm we find that the evening is the most comfortable time to be in the garden.  In the afternoon we built a pen for the rabbits to be outside their cage.  We read Watership Down and watched the bunnies jump around and waited for the sun to move.

We started by looking over our tomatoes that have reached jungle status.  It became clear that something had to be done.

After surveying dozens of tomatoes we took some branches that we trimmed earlier this season and lashed them together to make "tomato tripods" to allow the vines to spread and the fruit to develop.  Then we moved to the actual task at hand.

We went to the south side of the yard where we had potatoes and herbs that had gone too long mismanaged.  First off, we are terrible at taking "before and after" pictures so trust that it was full on chaos.  We hacked back our oregano and now have enough drying that we could season a million tacos and enhance a dozen pots of marinara.  It was truly out of hand.

With some careful weeding we sacrificed some carrots and beets that had been taken over in the weeds, herbs and potatoes.  Fortunately, we were able to salvage some beets and chard.

When we cleared the underbrush and harvested the potatoes we salvaged and moved some of our beets.  It is our hope that the beets end up like the one that ended up in dinner tonight.  But on to the potatoes.

We have only planted a handful of potatoes on purpose.  Those were blue potatoes that have yet to be harvested.  All our others are volunteers from either our compost or generations of potatoes that were planted by grandparents ahead of us.  Because of the abundance we made room.  We harvested over ten pounds of potatoes this evening.  Most of them were "new" potatoes which are roughly the size of a golf ball.  Many of them were destined for dinner.

Many of the new potatoes were cut in half or quarters.  We also chopped and onion that was found in the garden.  There were supposed to be carrots in the fridge but there was only one wimpy one.  Carly went and harvested a beet to add to the meal.  It was the biggest one we had ever grown, about the size of a tennis ball.

When we cut the beet open at the top it was completely white inside.  We looked at each other and Carly asked if it was a radish.  We could tell by the top that it was a beet but needed to make sure.  I took a bite and tasted the distinctness of beet.  We realized that it was a candy cane beet that was planted from an organic variety pack.  It's color and flavor was absolutely fantastic.

We poured some olive oil into our skillet and blessed it with some mild elephant garlic while we chopped our harvest.  The mixture of new potatoes, candy cane beet, onion, and even beet top made an excellent hash.  The garlic cloves were taken out when we turned up the heat and then we added it back toward the end of cooking.  A little Yves' turkey to add gave a little extra flavor.  Rosemary, thyme, kosher salt, and pepper was all that was necessary for the fresh from the ground food from our garden.

The simple finished product is satisfying after a busy evening.  We had a busy day and a portion of our yard that had become nearly useless not only provided dinner, but was replanted for meals in the future.