Who would think that too much of something can become an hindrance, but here we are.
This is what I see when I close my eyes:
I always wanted to swim in a pool of gold, or coin like scrooge, but it just doesn't have the same panache with potatoes.
What am I doing with that many potatoes you may ask? Well, we weren't meant to grow that many at first, now that we did, at least now I know that I will probably never be a full time farmer, because it's way too stressful and tiring. 😄
Or I would need some power tools, as digging potatoes is very satisfying at first, but becomes excruciatingly exhausting, especially during the peak heat season.
It worked, or at least we made it work, it took probably a week or two to harvest the 3 rows.
This was kinda cute
Even the kids joined in, for a while, but then I cannot ask everyone to get involved in this "mission" of mine, because I understand how depressing it becomes after novelty wears off. I am the obsessional type, so I need to finish something that I started.
I know that we spoke for a while about the eventuality of leaving some on the field unharvested, because of the sheer amount of work, but all in all, I am happy I went through it.
Brushing the potatoes
The first idea was to sell a part of the potatoes to surrounding restaurants, this is some good potatoes, called Mona Lisa, quite versatile, good for chips, gratin, and tasty boiled.
I called around restaurants and places susceptible of being interested, but everyone was trying to bring my prices down, to the point that it's not even interesting to drop them a sample, because it's going to end up costing me money.
Anyway, that's why we were brushing potatoes, for hours.
...And hours...
We then packed them in boxes containing roughly 100 lbs (more or less 50kg) worth of potatoes.
First thing in the morning after waking up, and instead of the normal gym routine, or making breakfast, just brushing potatoes for an hour, and just spreading the brushing throughout the day.
We got pretty efficient at it, then we realised that there were no point of keeping on brushing the entire stack, because we will give some away too, it was now time for the last part of the plan, going to meet the neighbours.
Once again I required the help of the entire family, but throwing potatoes in the back of a car was the most fun we had so far. My son Neo was particularly motivated on the last day, so shout out to him.
I decided to take the kids with me, they normally don't behave much in general, but I think there were an important lesson to be learnt, even for me.
Up until that point, I was just plain stressed out, because this potato curse completely changed my daily routine, I am a creature of habit. However, something very cool started to happen.
We met all our neighbours! There is a nice couple around the same age as us that was battling with a sceptic tank, and were so happy to get some free potatoes. They gave us some veggies in exchange, and we promised to have a drink together one of these days.
The next neighbours are another young couple, he is a crypto trader/actor apparently and want to start homes schooling for this daughter (he started the conversation with "Are you the ones home schooling your kids?", I guess rumours travel fast in small village).
The next neighbour is an old lady, that was not interested in our potatoes 😁 it's alright, we moved on to the next ones, and so on.
I even took the potatoes for a ride.
I went on a second run, a little bit less succesful, but still found people interested in free potatoes. I took the habit of saying "free" every time I say potatoes, because some of the neighbours thought I was selling them, so I had to clarify that it was all free.
People aren't used to any acts of kindness, so it was a great, heartwarming experience, even for the kids.
We came back home the second time around with still some leftover. Lucky for us, we've been told that an association might come pick up the rest, to give it away at "Les Restos du Coeur", which is a charity that feeds the ones in need. So all in all, I am happy that it will help somebody.
Someone even gave me a beer, how cool is that?
So, I might not be able to make too much money selling my potatoes, but we got something even better out of it, and we still have enough potatoes for the entire winter!
Alright, thanks for reading, I promise, no more potato posts 🙃