SMALL POTATOES

Our small potatoes are not 'small' potatoes

The price of potatoes in the Honolulu markets as of May 1, 1998 was about $1.00 per pound. They were old and gnarly with lots of eyes and scars and other signs of old age. There were also small 'new' potatoes at about $1.30 per pound. In any event they could not have been grown in Hawaii because the soil has to be cold - below the 'temperature of tuberization'.

The soil in the CHC ColdAg garden is well below the temperature of tuberization so John Biloon planted whatever one plants to produce "new potatoes" and in no time one could dig up these nice, uniformly textured, blemish-free, little potatoes. Boiled or baked they were delicious, fit for haute cuisine or to relieve an Irish famine. These potatoes are not 'small potatoes' but a guarantor for production of a fundamental starch for a self sufficient coastal desert community.

We will probably not plant rice because we don't have enough fresh water for a paddy, but we did plant some taro last week and it already looks mighty healthy.

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