potato planting

The show must go on here at Brindabella, regardless of the fact we are leaving. And so planting time has rolled around again on the farm...

Mr M has been doing a lot of tractor work of late, early mornings and late nights to work around the rain, ho-ing with the big new fancy rotary hoe.

The idea of growing potatoes is fairly simple really. I'm always surprised how many people ask me how to grow potatoes. Well...you get a potato...you put it in the ground...you wait. Ok so there's a lot more to it than that, but you get the general jist.

We use certified seed (from seed growers, not ware growers like us who grow potatoes you actually see in Woolies and Coles and end up eating). First you can see Mr M in his tractor going along and hoe-ing the earth, preparing it to plant the little 'taties. Then our farm manager Rod goes along in his tractor with the planter on, filled with the certified seed potatoes. We use un-cut seed, meaning a whole potato is put in the ground, some people use 'cut seed' which we used to do when I was growing up (back in the good ol' days). Cut seed is now seen to let more diseases into the potato as they have exposed flesh, but a lot of people still use cut seed - some say pot-ah-toes some same pot-ey-toes! Next my Dad goes along in his tractor and 'moulds' or 'bed forms' the rows. 

Dad pacing out and counting the rows

This is on the south side of Brindabella, across the Narracan Creek - you can see the ramshackle farmhouse over on the hill there...

Mr M on the left ho-ing, Rod on the right planting

With a little bit of luck these spuddies will be poking their little green shoots out of the ground in no time, given some spring showers and sunshine. Then they will grow big and tall, flower and die, we will harvest, work the earth again and sow down to pasture before the whole process starts again.

All in a days work. Ok, enough of the tractor photos already...

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella