The Transformation of the Humble Potato

 

It all started in the late winter of 2022, on a visioning zoom call for the brand new community garden.  We were brainstorming what vegetable we would like to grow.   “Let’s plant potatoes,” suggested Ronald Muwonge.  Originally from Uganda, Ronald works in food services and has a You Tube channel called “Cooking with Ronald”.  He is also an avid gardener and I imagined him putting potato cooking recipes onto his You Tube channel.

The cedar potato box with the word potato in Luganda (Bumonde), Anishinaabemowin (Opin), French (Patat) and Michif (Patak) reflecting some of the languages spoken in our region.

Another member of the community got into the spirit of potatoes and built a cedar potato box to grow them in.  We researched how to grow potatoes in a box and what nutrients might be needed for such an endeavour.  We learned that potatoes like lots of potassium for good root growth.  An easy source of this is dried banana peels that are ground up.  We saved all our banana peels for a few weeks, dried them in the greenhouse and buzzed them in the coffee bean grinder.  We also learned that potatoes like slightly acidic soil and that pine needles are a good source to lower the pH.  We collected this “pine straw” from the local forest and added it to the soil at the bottom of the box which had holes cut in it for drainage.

On planting day, we added the banana peel dust to the top of the soil and Ronald planted the seed red potatoes into holes in the soil, leaving the “eyes” looking up to the sky.  Some of the children in the community helped him to water them.   You can see the planting on this beautiful You Tube video that Ronald made about the celebration at the 29:45 mark  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRmwgSlZuDk

As the potatoes sprouted and the stems and leaves grew higher, we added soil to encourage lateral root growth and thus more potatoes.  We added more pine straw as well and watered.  Eventually the plants made it to the top of the box and we stopped adding soil.  The stems and leaves kept on going up another two feet.  Eventually they flowered with beautiful purple and yellow flowers that had a very sweet fragrance.  Most us the people that visited the garden had never seen potato flowers up close before and they stopped to well, smell the potatoes.  These flowers turned into seed pods which look just like green cherry tomatoes except, potato seed pods are toxic.  So, we quietly picked them all off so that no child would make an unfortunate error.

The beautiful potato flower that has a very sweet smell

Towards the end of August, some of the plants began to wilt.  We knew that we could get small “new potatoes” from the box at this point but we decided to wait a while longer.  In the middle of September, we had a Harvest Celebration including the big potato reveal.  At first, we had some trouble enticing the kids to come and dig for potatoes.  But once, they started to reveal the pinkish red spuds, the excitement mounted.  Some of the children had been watering the potatoes all summer while others were new to the garden.  They used yogurt containers as scoops and carefully removed the soil to discover potato treasures.

The children reach into the potato box

Each one was carefully pulled out and handed to another community member to be put on a wire screen.  The excitement grew and loud shouts of “Whoaaaa” were heard with each new find. It was wonderful to see children with their hands in the earth, finding food.  Hopefully that will be a memory that stays with them. Eventually we reached the bottom of the box and looked at the beautiful harvest.

The final potato harvest

Three potatoes were put in each brown paper lunch bag to be taken home by the Harvest celebration participants – including the soil that still clung to them.  There were enough potatoes for everyone to take some home.  As we were packing up at the end of the celebration, I was told that there was one more potato left in the box and that I should come and see it.  There, inside the box was one of the five year old boys who had helped to plant the potatoes in May.  He was curled up and was vibrating slightly as he pretended to be the last potato to be found.

Sadly, Ronald and his family had to move away from Waubauahene at the end of June.  However, we sent him email updates about the garden and he is planning to make a third video this fall.  And so, it only seemed fitting to mail him three potatoes for himself, his wife Vanessa and their son Liam.  We are all still connected.

What started as an idea on zoom blossomed and transformed as we worked together.  In a small way, we got to take part in an activity that our ancestors knew only too well. The potato which originated in Peru, has travelled the world.  And the world has travelled to Canada. This richness of ancestry was represented in the potato harvesters at our celebration as we came together to renew our relationship with the soil, the rain and the sun that resulted in food that will sustain us and with each other.  I will never look at a potato in the same way that I used to after this.  For me, potatoes have now become a sacred symbol of community and the healing that is possible when we renew and nurture relationships.

A tiny tree frog who itself transformed from egg to tadpole to frog, surveys the empty potato box.