COLUMN BY:
Shawn & Beth Dougherty
Planting Potatoes IT'S THE FRIDAY BEFORE EASTER, potato-planting day. The whole family is in the garden patch where we grow Pontiac, Kennebec, and Yukon Gold potatoes. Putting in the potatoes is a big job—we grow a lot, as much as two tons, because they are a really significant part of our diet. The soil was tilled yesterday in furrows three feet apart, dark streaks showing where last year’s mulch has decayed. We haul buckets of cut potatoes to the garden and divide into teams: one person to drop a piece of potato (sprouts up)every twelve inches or so; the second person, with a hoe, to cover it with a few inches of soil.
Teamwork We are often aware of how much farming has made us a family, a team, through our work together. Some folks go to Disney Land for a Together vacation; we stay home and work on a project. It’s easy to see how this has formed us over the years; the young people are good planners and problem solvers and know how to collaborate. Luke and Jess’s new deck includes nails put there by everyone in the family, down to their five-year-old son; the bricks in William and Ashley’s house were repointed by all the Dougherty women. The boys built us a barn in April of 2020, while most of America was trapped indoors by mandates. This isn’t just work for us; when we do it together, it’s fun. So gardening is a family task. Beginning in January, when the first seed catalogs arrive, we make lists and charts of what to plant, where to plant it, and how much to grow. The children are as likely to take the lead as we are. They’ve known this routine all their lives; they have the experience and judgment, and they, too, will be eating the results. Put in the ground on Good Friday, potatoes just seem to grow better. Planting times are one of the things our work is teaching us, one
PLAIN VALUES
APRIL 2023
37
