I Harvest an Abundance of Potatoes

Finally my harvest of potatoes came in so I wrote this article on the life cycle of a potato plant.

I Harvest an Abundance of Potatoes Ecclesiastes 3 v 2 "A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;"I live in south Georgia, and I always plant a garden every year.

One of the vegetables I plant is red Irish potatoes.

In late January, I prepare the soil by plowing it with my tractor.

After the seedbed is finished, I go down to Dan Bennett's, our Blackshear garden seed center, and buy my potato seed.

I take this 50 pound burlap sack of seed, cut the eyes from the potatoes, and let them dry for a couple of days.

Meanwhile, I prepare the rows for planting.

Mind you, all this preparation is hard but fun work, and I do get my hands dirty.

The fresh plowed dirt is a scent that I always remember...a blessing from the Lord.

I then plant the potatoes in the open row.

I lay them gently in the row, placing each seed about 18 inches apart.

After I do this, I fertilize them, and then cover them up with dirt.

I did my part, and then I wait on the Lord to give the increase.

After three or four weeks of patiently waiting, I see some green shoots poking up through the soil and look on with wonder.

It is always a wonder to me to see things grow, to know I had a part in it, and to meditate on the amazing providence of God.

He sent the sun to warm the earth, the rain to water it, and man to till it.

I carefully watch my plants that sprung forth from the seed I planted because I know that the potato plant has an enemy...it is called a potato bug.

This little critter has alternate black and yellow stripes and if you see one there are more.

Sure enough, after my potato plants were about six inches high, I spotted one, then another.

I hooked up my sprayer, mixed together some insecticide, and then thoroughly sprayed my tender plants.

In a couple of days, I inspected my potato plants, and the enemy was gone.

The Lord sent some more rain and sunshine, and one day I fertilized the potatoes once more, and plowed them for the last time.

I then had to patiently wait for the harvest.

Saturday, April 29, 2006 was the big day...the harvest day I had been anticipating since that long ago (it seemed to me) January day when I had planted those potato seeds.

I decided to plow the potatoes up with my Farmall Super A instead of my Ford 3000 tractor.

I hooked up the plow, and as Nancy, a friend of mine looked on, plowed up that first row.

Low and behold, there were fresh red Irish potatoes everywhere!  Nancy and I picked them up and took them to the barn, washed them off, and put them in five and 10 pound mesh bags.

I estimated that I had a harvest of 250 pounds from the 50 pound sack of seed I had planted.

It was worth the wait to see this blessing from the Lord.

Small red potatoes cooked up in some green beans is sure a tasty treat.

After the potatoes were harvested, I raked up the now useless plants, and throwed them in my burn pile.

I then took my Ford tractor and plowed up the ground where they grew.

I will plant something else (maybe okra and Indian corn) where those plants lived and died.

Over the past 19 years of planting, cultivating and harvesting a garden, the cycle of life of a plant reminds me of what King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes...

"there is a time and a purpose for everything under heaven".

Everytime I plant seed I am reminded of the parable of the seed in Luke chapter eight verses five through 15.

I particularly like verse 11:

"Now the parable is this:

The seed is the word of God.

"Over my many years of being a "seed-sower" for the Lord, I have planted many spiritual seeds.

I have seen the enemy destroy some of these seeds, I have seen some fruit from these seeds, and I am still waiting for the harvest from other seeds.

I know that my labor (yes seed sowing is hard work) for the Lord has not been in vain, and I will reap what I have sown.

Galatians 6 v 9:  "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."Irvin L. Rozier, aka walkin2e

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