Potatoes are just about the perfect survival crop.
the potato is fairly easy to grow they store very well and potatoes are very nutrtious (potatoes are high in vitamin C and potassium) Potatoes can be cooked in many ways such as roasted, mashed, sliced and fried or deep fried, boiled or baked or roasted in a fire, potatoes can even be used as the base for a alcohol (vodka).
The potato will g...row just about everywhere, produces a tremendous amount of food for the labor and space involved and is easily disguised as something non edible to most non rural people.
The Irish before the famine lived largely on a small plot of potatoes, some cabbage and the milk from a cow they grazed beside the roadside verge and maybe a pig or two. The mistake made by the Irish was to grow only one variety of potato, so when the blight hit the entire potato crop died off.
With hundreds of potential varieties of potatoes to plant, potatoes have tremendous genetic varieability and are some of the most important food crop we can plant for self sufficiency.
There are early varieties of potatoes to harvest as early as late spring to mid or late summer, just wait till the flowers open fully then use your potato fork to lift the potato plant and ease your treasure of tubors from the ground.
The main crop of potatoes will produce your heaviest crop. Wait till the plant tops have turned brown and died down completely then fork the potatoes up, let them dry and then take the tubors into storage.
An acre of potatoes on well tended ground, can produce as much as 40 tons of potatoes per acre, that is a lot of spuds folks.
You can store your potatoes in root cellars, just don't let them freeze, or put them in clamps. A clamp is made by selecting a dry corner of your garden, cover it with straw, pile the potatoes, then cover them with straw, then bury the straw under 6- 8 inches of dirt then cover with straw or leaves. This will keep your potatoes all through the winter.
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