The Zeiger Family Homestead Blog

Potatoes Grow to New Heights

We had more potatoes than beds to plant them in this year. So I finally tried out the potato tower idea I’d heard from Mike McGrath on “You Bet Your Garden.”

The Potato Cage

I started with a lashed together log cabin style frame. A foot or so of soil/compost was added, then seed potatoes, seaweed and some straw for “chinking” in the spaces on the sides.

Seed Potatoes and Friends

I repeated the layers three times and ended with another 8 inches or so of soil.

May Potato Tower

I planted the native Maria’s potatoes from Klukwan. They seem to like it just fine.

July Potato Tower

Harvest this year should be fun. Just cut the string and catch the potatoes as they fall.

“My Moon”

When Aly was very young, she had her own names for the moon. If the moon appeared in any crescent phase, she called it “Crisp Moon.” Anywhere near full, she called it “My Moon.”

She celebrated her birthday recently. She’s still working a summer job down south, so we celebrated the day without her here on the homestead, under the full moon.

Her Uncle David and Aunt Anke joined us for a beach fire dinner and birthday cake. As we sat there, the full moon rose over the Coast Range. We recited the lullabye we used to share with Aly on such nights:

I see the moon
The moon sees me.
God Bless the moon,
And God Bless me.

We didn’t know exactly how Aly would be marking her birthday that night, but we took comfort in knowing that this same moon—Aly’s “My Moon”—saw her, too.

Full moonrise over the Coast Range (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

(Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

Potatoes Grow to New Heights

“My Moon”

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