Fun to hear about your pepper plant DowBright. Yes, that part of me keeps thinking, since the potatoes wanted to be there and do so well, who am I to argue. That back corner has long been a sanctuary for lost and "discarded by others" things. Ms. Potato fits right in that description, though tossed by me. I'm still undecided. That spot was built specifically to have a place a tomato might do well. I've built about half of a raised bed there, using broken concrete chunks from when I had to replace my front sidewalk. Gradually building up the compost of all the extra leaves, eventually the raised bed should be filled. Hopefully I'll get the other half of the walls done over the next couple years. It's hard work and I'm older, so it doesn't go up in a weekend. But it's sure a prefect use for the materials and the plan is to keep things trimmed nearby , after a major cut back, so the sun can come over the fence and have one spot in my garden with at least the most sunlight. Not that it's the recommended amount of sun, but the best that's going to happen here in the PNW ( average 68 days per year of less than 30% cloud cover and at a bit of an angle). Add to that I'm in the city, close neighbors and fences. ... plus mostly all tall old growth type trees. Yeah, I'm growing in the dark here. Thus my lack of growing food type things. Ask me about woodland plants, I've got the answers if I've not forgotten. But food plants I'm really lacking in experience. So today as I kept trying to decide, I went back to check and see what the temperature of the soil in the raised by concrete bed on a rare warm day. Turns out we now know why this is doing so well. It's at 76 degrees, with 78 being the top recommended. If left to grow, I may have pre-baked potatoes real soon. Opps. But great for a tomato plant here where it's generally cool compared to so much of the country. To my surprise I discovered the compost I swept up and dumped on top of the potato planting last night has magically, in the first 12 hours spawned a beautiful clump of dog vomit slime mold ! Most people discovering such a thing the first time are grossed out. It's an acquired taste. LOL It only happens at this time of year here and is rare enough most have not seen it. It will grow and change daily for a few weeks then be gone till next year. Causes no harm and the cool thing is it has the ability to remove heavy metals. Very cool for such a thing in my mind. That's the news from this potato patch for today ! Here is a link that might be useful: dog vomit slime mold

Perilla I believe. Here is a link that might be useful: Perilla

On the advice of many, I purchased potato "seeds", which are potatoes produced specifically for crops. They have been inspected at a state level, and from what I've heard have been treated with a coating to prevent diseases and also aide in product yield (??). Store bought cooking potatoes have some sort of growth inhibitor to prevent the eyes from sprouting too quickly. I purchased the seed potatoes and cut them into quarters, each quarter having at least one eye on it (this is where the tubers grow from). I planted ours in mid-April and I just started harvesting them this past week.

Hi Augie Thanks for answering. I am concerned about the oil that they are cooked in going bad or developing a funny smell. I haven't made any yet and am really just looking around for recipes. I have seen that some deep fry them and some bake them. What do you do? What kind of oil and seasonings do you use? I would like to try making chips from beets, carrots, and sweet potatoes. I've had the sweet potato chips at a restaurant and I think I can do better than those. I hope anyway. Oh yeah, what kind of slicer do you use? I am thinking about a mandolin slicer with the waffle cut attachment. Thank you