A Bumper Crop!

It began as a science experiment. An Idaho Baker was left in the pantry for too long and began to grow 4" antennea. I was going to throw it away but first I wanted to show Urban Cowboy because it really had transformed into an alien-like potato. Urban Cowboy took one look at it and said, "I'm going to plant that". That was at the end of May. He planted it and we laughed it off and kind-of forgot about it until it began to grow, green and bushy, from the ground. Urban Cowboy started watering it and it got bigger and bigger. Soon, our potato plant was so big we had to stake it because it was falling into the driveway. It began to crowd the flowers I had planted nearby it. One day it flowered - tiny, white flowers that lasted for only a few days. Then nothing happened. It stopped getting bigger. Eventually, it began to brown from the bottom up. We conducted some potato-growing research and discovered that when the foliage begins to brown and die back the potatoes are ready to harvest. We didn't want to do anything too soon, though, so we waited. Yesterday I was walking by our magnificent potato plant and saw what I thought was a rock poking out from the soil. I stepped closer to remove the rock and realized it was actually a potato that had pushed it's way up to the surface! I was so excited and I immediately ran to get Urban Cowboy to show him. We decided it was time to dig them up and see if any other potatoes had grown. We found 14 pototoes big enough to eat (and a handful of very tiny potatoes) and all of them looked ready to be cooked in that very moment! It was so exciting! We gave 2 potatoes to our neighbors because they're always so nice and share everything they have with us. We ate one potato for dinner (it would have been more had I not already begun a batch of couscous) and it was very yummy. The other potatoes are being stored in the pantry awaiting to be cooked into a delicious potato-centered meal! Oh, and the pictures are of our actual potato crop. Urban Cowboy and I are dorks and photographically documented the whole event!