Hi there everyone. Well, this morning I went out to the garden to check on things. We just got alot of rain from tropical storm Danny out in the Atlantic. Anyhoo, last week while I was away my potato plants turned to brown mush, so I figured my potatoes were done. I left them there until this morning. I pulled up a plant for the heck of it and it had a nice big red potato hanging from it. WOW !!!. I was shocked. So, I dug up the rest of them,,probably 8 or 10 plants, and all of them had nice sized red potatoes underneath. I am assuming my plants were hit with blight, because they pretty much died overnight from heavy rain,,and my tomato plants are looking brownish as well, everytime it rains they get worse. I know they are both affected by this disease. I am also assuming it is okay to still eat the potatoes???. Any comments are appreciated. Thanks =)

You need a soil test to be certain what's going on with the ground itself. No amount of guessing will help. Tell them what you're trying to grow and they can offer corrections tailor made for specific crops, usually. Generally, you need softer soil so the tubers will be able to expand. Incorporate all the organic matter you can find. Compost is supreme, but chipped leaves are great, manures are good, and if you absolutely have to, try peat moss. Someone suggested sand to me, but I believe that red clay plus sand = concrete and I don't want it to be worse than it is already. I plant about 300 slips per year. I do the same thing every year. I get varying results and still don't know why. Last year, I had a decent crop, but not any huge tubers like in the past. So this March, I hauled in fresh horse manure and dumped it and tilled it in. When I was ready to plant in May when the slips arrived, that had mostly rotted. I use a turn plow to make hilled rows. It digs deep. I go both ways to make one row so it's uniform on both sides. Works for me. Then I'll go back and hand plant 18 to 24 inches apart and firm the soil around them on top of the ridge. I make a depression around them to help catch water. Otherwise, it runs off, not in. Red clay forms a crust in a heart beat. I'll water a few times as is, then I'll go back and poke holes in the hill 6 or 8 inches deep and water again into the holes so water gets into the hill. Usually I have to water 4 to 6 times, once every other day, before it rains enough and the plants look like they will survive on their own. I may go 3 days between if it's overcast and not so hot. Watering is done by hand. I'm not near a spigot. Used to be 2 gallon cans filled from a rubbermaid container and spritz each plant. Now I have a 300 gallon tank on a trailer and a hose. I still walk the rows, but I can give each plant more water at a time without fear of running out so soon. 300 plants means about 500 row feet. last year, I dumped a quart of fish emulsion, a bottle of NOG, and a small bottle of chelated iron (needed magnesium or manganese, I forget) and just for good measure, a handful of 20 mule team borax for boron. They need boron. I added 200 gallons of water. Nice fragrant cocktail. I watered both the sweets and the tomatoes and pepper transplants with it. I had the best pepper production I've ever had. Sweets, not so much. This year, I added fresh manure in March and watered again with the cocktail. I dug sample sweets early last week that were the size of gallon milk jugs. Literally. I'm waiting to dig the rest another week or two. I usually dig them right at the September/October change. I've had rabbit issues this year from what I can tell looking at the patch. But the vines are thick and heavy, the leaves are huge. I'm looking forward to the big dig in another week or two. Next year, I should be using rain water. That's the plan anyway. See if this works. If not, click the link below. This is from two random plants near the end of the rows. Smaller regular size tubers are in the bucket... Here is a link that might be useful:

We are currently remodeling part of our home. As such, the entire contents of our kitchen, dining room and my home office are in cardboard boxes stacked halfway to the roof in one half of our garage. The other half of the garage, front to back, is stacked with our new kitchen cabinets ready to be installed on Monday. Last night the wind was strong and the rain came down fairly hard. Hard enough to cause our atrium to flood, which in turn seeped water into the back half of the garage. The rain must have been blowing toward our house as the front of our garage floor was wet as well. How that happens with a fairly new metal, roll-up door with weather stripping, we don't know. All we know is that a few soon to be installed drawers and upper cabinets got wet and swelled, as did the shelves of our very nice 12' bookcase and a few bottom cardboard boxes (which are supporting several others) got wet enough to start to buckle. As you can imagine, we had to do a lot of shifting and rearranging this morning and will have to see what the contractor says about the damaged cupboards on Monday morning. Other than that, I am really enjoying the rain! :-) Jodi-

My very favorite potato salad of all time is Emeril's Flo's Potato Salad. There are several versions floating around, but this is the one I first used so always go back to it. The others omit cilantro, add parsley and bacon. I serve too many vegetarians to add bacon to anything. It has some mayo, but it's not very mayonnaisey...and I usually don't use the full amount. The potatoes and garlic are roasted, so have great flavor and texture, no need for a lot of sauce. This can easily be cut in half for a smaller recipe. I do NOT process the cilantro into the mayo mixture because it makes kind of a lime green dressing. I just chop it finely and fold it in. Roasted Potato Salad 2 pounds new potatoes 10 cloves of fresh garlic Drizzle of olive oil Salt & Freshly ground black pepper 3/4 cup Homemade Mayonnaise 2 tablespoons Creole Mustard Juice of one fresh lemon 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, washed and patted dry 4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, toss the potatoes and garlic with a drizzle of olive oil. Toss well. Season with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Using a mini food processor, combine the mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice. Process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cilantro and continue to process until incorporated. In a mixing bowl, toss the roasted potatoes and garlic, cilantro mayonnaise, sliced eggs, and red onions. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate or 2 hours. Remove from the refrigerator and mix the salad. Re-season with salt and pepper if needed.