Seeds To Grow: Clancy Potatoes

February 17, 2025 Sarah

When most gardeners think about growing potatoes, they think of seed potatoes – nothing more than potatoes that you let sprout eyes and then cut up and plant. It is an efficient way to grow potatoes. It’s simple, and almost anyone can do it – even people with black thumbs.

However, you are missing out on a wide variety of potato varieties you could grow.

But let’s step back first! Potatoes came from South America, and until the Ozette variety was “discovered” growing in the wilds of Washington State (that’s a fascinating story always – the conquistadors brought it by boat and planted it on the land the Makah tribe lived on, at Neah Bay, Wa. Then, the Spaniards left the following year, and the tribe grew the potatoes for the next almost 200 years – it was similar to the tubers they grew, so it was accepted readily); the only potatoes growing in North America had gone from South America to Europe, then to North America. This is why there are so few varieties sold commercially. You might find waxy white, yellow, red, or blue in most grocery stores. Yukon Golds. And, of course, Luther Brubank’s creation: the Russet baking potato. You might see a few more types at farmer’s markets.

Yet…out there are SO many varieties waiting to be grown—1000s of types.

Yes, these are actual types of Peruvian potatoes. Note how much like tubers they appear to be. They are often very wild-looking (because they are!).

Peru is a fascinating agricultural country, with so many things North Americans (or Europeans) have never seen, much less tasted. Over the past few years, I have grown a few types of seeds from there. Because variety is why I choose to grow food, grow the weirder things.

But the type I love more than anything? It’s not one of the truly wild Peru varieties. It is:

The Clancy Potato (link goes to the company we use)

It’s an F1 hybrid, so it is a bred plant. Potatoes native to Peru/South America are often small, very thin-skinned, and have dramatic white interiors but deeply colored skins. They can also be sharply flavored. The Clancy, being a hybrid, was bred to have good taste, along with lovely colored skin and a great texture.

So, it takes all the good parts and leaves the potential negatives behind.

But best of all? Clancy is grown from actual seed, not old potatoes. By selling seeds, you also have a high chance of having healthy plants (this is why while you can grow potatoes from any potato, buying commercial seed potatoes is better as they are grown to prevent common potato diseases). Actual seed-seed bypasses that all.

And it’s fun to grow. Children really will enjoy this as a spring project.

The seeds are commonly sold in pelleted form, making them easy to pick up and plant.

I typically grow the seeds one seed per 4″ starting pot in an unheated greenhouse, using no grow lights.

You want to plan to seed 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost date. So, if you live where that is April 15th, you can seed from March 1st and on. Once germinating (takes 1 to 2 weeks), keep them watered as normal and allow the plants to get going. Once you are past the last frost, I put the pots outside to do their thing in spring’s sun, and in May, I plant in large pots or in the ground (make a row with a trench and grow the plants 3 feet apart).

This very popular meme shows ways you can grow potatoes. While they are using seed potatoes in the photos, you can plant the plants instead. When I grow in towers or pots, I plant them low and then add soil over the growing season to “hill” them, encouraging more growth.

Clancy’s beautiful pink-lavender-blueish flowers are quite pretty. You may see potato berries put on after flowering is done. They look like a hot mess of a green tomato. Your best bet is to pick them off and toss them in the garbage. The seeds inside these are sterile due to being a hybrid; with non-hybrid types of Peruvian potatoes, the seeds can be collected and used. No matter what, watch that dogs and children don’t try to eat them, as it won’t taste good, nor feel good later. They are night-shade members, after all. It can be shocking at first when you see tomato berries because you don’t see them with the North American potatoes everyone else grows, typically.

The first time you grow Clancy, you might think, “I only have 9 or 10 seeds in this packet! And these potatoes are not big!” Yet, as with all potatoes, you can regrow your first ones into new plants. And that is how I often do it yearly: the first summer crop I harvest, keep the biggest to eat, then replant the smaller ones for an early fall crop. Potatoes are one of the “forever crops” that will regrow without human input (garlic is another). I often grow Clancy plants to sell and get others interested in different varieties.

The plants can grow as tall as 40″, so make sure you have room.

When to harvest? You can harvest the smallest new potatoes once the plants start to flower. If you want bigger potatoes, keep hilling them and growing them until the plants start to die back (where they collapse and turn more tawny in color). For full-size potatoes, this can take 110 days from planting your starter plants in the ground. That is nearly four months, but you’ll be eating well in August!

~Sarah

Buying Seeds For The New Year

January 21, 2025 Sarah

As winter hangs on deeply in much of the United States, and February stares at us directly, just around the corner, the answer is always…buy seeds!

I would argue that buying seeds is one of the best things we can do. It helps us drive away cabin fever and lets us dream of what will be. When the sun returns, it’s almost warm outside. It gives us time to plan what we will grow this coming year.

A post we wrote on buying seeds to check out.

To keep from going stir-crazy, you can also stock up on seed starter pots and trays, make your potting mix, and set up the area where you will start seeds (be it inside or in a greenhouse). If you use grow lights, ensure they work (so you have time to budget and order new ones). And order your fertilizer, etc., that you might need in late winter/early spring. If you have a greenhouse, this is the time to do a deep clean. Toss cracked pots, sweep out, and tidy the greenhouse up. It’s warm there when it is daylight, so enjoy it!

Puttering helps one feel like they are getting ready, even if the actual seeding time is still 1 to 2 months away.

It is—that excitement when you open a package from the mailbox and see nasturtiums, peas, and tomatoes—all those colorful packets.

My first seeds from Baker Creeks Seeds will arrive in a few days. I will slowly add more from other companies. I know I have time, and there is no rush, but I might as well get going, no?

You can start the first seeds in a month. These are cold-weather crops that can handle a bit of cold, especially if you have a greenhouse or frost tunnels outside (that said, your ground isn’t frozen solid). I call it Fake Spring planting when we get that hint of warmth right before it gets cold again, often in February. In the PNW, this is very common. In the rest of the US, where everything is frozen, it may be awhile.

But for now, open your paper catalogs, go online, or stand around in the local feed/hardware store and daydream. Think about the fun you will have in the coming months. Seeds are relatively inexpensive, so even if you overbuy, or only use 5 seeds in a packet, it is affordable.

And…buy that crazy plant you always wanted to try. It might cost you $3, and if you fail at it? Not a big loss. But chances are, you will be successful and might become an expert at it. That was how I became so adept at growing heirloom alpine strawberries.

My last piece of advice is to buy the best brands. Don’t just buy it because a brand is the cheapest. If seeds are from your region, they will grow most often, as they have been bred for your climate. Look for heirloom types that you can save seeds from later in the year. I usually buy 10 to 12 brands over the winter to get varieties I know and trust will grow well. Some are well-known; others are tiny growers who I found online.

Let us not forget that knowing how to garden and grow food is a life skill. It pays off with a delicious summer and fall. If you believe this year will lead to higher produce cost, because of tariffs, from imported produce, you need to get planning. The more you grow, the less you will spend in stores in 6 months time. And frankly, relying less on imported goods is a solid thing to do. Then, you don’t need to worry about crop failures in Mexico or Peru, should they occur (and yes, it happens every few years).

~Sarah

Gardening

It’s Almost Time To Start Planning

December 20, 2024 Sarah

In that lull between the holidays and the start of the year, the desire to plant becomes insatiable as we slip into the new year. Maybe we know deep in our psyche that the light is returning to the north.

For many of us, there’s not enough daylight as we enter Winter; it’s cold, rainy, and possibly snowy. Your ground may also be frozen over.

But that desire still burns. We know soon! We can start planting seeds once again.

To me, gardening is something deep in our souls. Because even less than a hundred years ago, our lives did depend on humans growing food. We are fortunate that it can be a hobby now, but we should always treat it as something we should know. Well.

By the end of the long summer, often we hate gardening. We might declare we will never do it again. We are hot, sweaty and burnt out. But once we take a few months off, all we want is to be in soil once again, watching tiny seeds sprout.

But for now, it’s time to dream. Of planning. Order seeds. Sketch out what you want.

But you have time. A lot of time. Yes, you can start tomatoes and peppers if you really want, under grow lights, but you can also wait till March 1st.

Winter is here, and let it shine for it’s short months. Soon the light and warmth will return. But just like the earth, it is time for you to rest, to hibernate.

Soon, you will be back outside, planting happily.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Garlic Crop Planted

October 31, 2024 Sarah

Getting focused in the fall to garden can be challenging, but knowing that your garlic is in the ground is worth it. Then you can walk inside for the year and forget about it, till next spring.

I wrote about our garlic harvest back in the summer. I had a lot of garlic to harvest, and the boys were the reason it happened this year. Once we pulled it, we spread it out on our farm tables, undercover, and walked off for a couple of months. And it was just fine once I went up to get it. Garlic is an easy crop – all it needs is to be kept in the shade, with lots of fresh air, and it cures on its own. You want to ensure it doesn’t get rained on, and before the temperatures chill in fall, you want it trimmed and packed up.

Some of the bulbs were very large.

Last week, the boys had 3 days off of school, so I asked them to help me. One weeded the bed, and both brought in new compost to bring the bed back up to level. The other one used our garlic dibbler to make holes, and we got the crop in the ground.The bed we used was a chicken coop up till 2 years ago. It’s awkwardly placed for sure, in the middle of the area, but it grows well.

It’s not a big crop this fall. We only sowed maybe 90 cloves at most.

Alistaire helped me install a quick fence. It isn’t that any animals will eat it, but rather to keep the chickens out of bed. If left to themselves, they will dig it up, so a quick four-foot-high fence tells them to stay out.

This weekend, I will have them help me bring down maple leaves from under the big tree and smother the bed for the winter to protect it from potential snow and freezes.

I have a bit more seed to plant, held back from sales and eating, but overall, I am not planting as much as in years before. I want to condense what I am growing next year.

Garlic sells well, though, so it is worth growing more than we use.

As a homestead, selling seed garlic in the fall can help pay for the other seeds you will plant in spring.

Especially when buying it in store, it’s is running $23 to 24 a pound! I was shocked at the prices this year, it was bad last year, but this is even higher.

And their bulbs? Are the sizes of the medium-small I sell (the ones I apologize for being “small”).

I am also starting this week a number of trays worth of garlic, potted into 4″ pots, that I will sell or trade in spring. It is the same as planting and selling flower bulbs. Other gardeners can plant them in spring, and they are at the same pace as fall planted (you can plant garlic from seed in spring, but it often doesn’t get as big as fall planted does; garlic requires cold weather to grow its biggest potential).

My advice is: Get out this week and plant your garlic! It is time to do it!

~Sarah

DIY · Gardening · Herbalism · Urban Homesteading · Wildcrafting

Preserving Chamomile For Tea

October 20, 2024October 20, 2024 Sarah

Last week, I popped into the food co-op closest to us and browsed the bulk-dried herbs and spices. As I walked by, I saw a jar of Chamomile and gasped—$29.99 a pound!

The bulk bins are often sourced from Frontier Co-op, a very ethical and real cooperative. For example, you can buy their products in large bags directly from them or even on Amazon. On Amazon, a 1-pound mylar bag of Chamomile sells for $1592 currently (its retail price is $44.50, but sells for less). While far more affordable (and the same product, with both being organic), it’s not exactly affordable, even at $16 a pound. And neither does one know how “fresh” it is. That bulk bin could have been filled the day before…or 6 months before. The co-op has windows that let in the sun, further degrading the color and aroma of their bulk herbs. That is something that frustrates me at that particular store, and nearly all stores selling bulk herbs and spices have them in direct light, be it LED or whatever they use.

Now, I understand that the cost also reflects picking of the flowers, but I have to think it’s been mechanized, long ago, to make it quick and simple.

While I often preach the beauty of bulk bins, they have issues. The biggest is turnover. The second is quality, which is part of the first problem. If a store doesn’t have a great turnover, you face buying stale products. Stale herbs make people think the herb doesn’t taste good when it is so old that the flavor has long departed the mortal coil. The lesser third problem is that as the stock dwindles down, you get smaller pieces. No full flowers, but rather sprinkles of dry material. That is an issue, of course, with tea bags, which are often nothing but powder.

Many herbs are easy to preserve. Chamomile is one of the easiest. In the early morning, walk along it and pluck the flowers between your first and second fingers. The flower head usually pops right off. I pick into a new brown paper lunch sack till I am tired of stooping over or I run out of blooms. Chamomile rewards you often with a ton of new blossoms within days after each harvest.

Chamomile is a “plant once, harvest forever” kind of plant. It self-seeds easily and grows with zero input from us, the gardener. You don’t need to water it; it’ll still grow nearly always. It enjoys disturbed soil and happily crowds out the actual weeds. I only plant chamomile seeds if it is a new area, or I had to fully retill and reshape a growing area every 5 or so years. Even then, I often find it growing feral in our fields. It blows on the wind; chickens scratch the soil, and such.

Pick them at their height when the blooms are full and smell incredible. And let them air dry in the brown paper lunch sacks you pick in. Protected from light, they dry quickly, preserving their color and aroma.I leave the bag(s) on the counter, turning gently every day or so, as I remember. Once dry I transfer gently into a mason jar and tuck away.

Do not use a dehydrator for herbs! The heat will destroy the delicate essential oils in the leaves and plant material.

Freshly preserved and ready to be tucked away, the flowers will lose their vibrancy of color as time passes, but that is OK. Just store them in glass mason jars, as I mentioned above, tucked into a cool, dry, and dark area.

Then, enjoy the tea you can make in fall and winter by infusing the dried flowers in a tea basket with hot water. Boil the water and let it sit for a minute or two before pouring it over the tea.

For me, it needs nothing, but a drizzle of raw honey also gives a delicious boost.

~Sarah