Potatoes are one of the crops we harvest all at once and divide among gardeners. The others are edamame, garlic, onions, and winter squash. Other share-divided crops, when we grow them, include Brussels sprouts, seed pumpkins, and peanuts.
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Potatoes took up four short rows and one long row in this season’s garden. They grow underground and use the space efficiently, so harvesting this small area yields generous shares.
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Gardeners dig in carefully several inches from the plant. It’s impossible to tell from the surface exactly where the potatoes ended up growing, and shovel-chopped potatoes spoil quickly.
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Gardeners work in pairs, one shoveling, one hand digging, and both moving potatoes handful by handful into wheelbarrows.
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Each gardener household gets a bucket of white potatoes and a bucket of red and purple potatoes.
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These beautiful purple potatoes are volunteers from last season! This year, we did nothing but a bit of watering and weeding and ended up with these luscious spuds.