This early September morning dawned crisp and blue, a perfect day for Touchstone’s second annual potato harvest. Last spring some of our 4- and 5-year-old students planted “seed potatoes” down in the square foot beds – two 3’ x 3’ beds– 18 square feet of growing space altogether. Our seed potatoes were just store-bought organic potatoes, cut into chunks, each with at least one eye, left to dry overnight, and then buried with the eye side upwards. When the new school year begins, those very 4- and 5-year-old potato planters turn into 5- and 6-year-old potato diggers. By September, what had been bushy green plants had long since died back to a few sad brown stalks lying on the top of the beds. Could more potatoes really be down there? Four small girls set to work with trowels and the hunt was on. A few small potatoes were exhumed. Things didn’t look very promising. Suddenly, someone came upon an enormous brown potato. Then someone else found a huge one. By the time garden choice time was over, everyone had a great big potato to carry triumphantly inside. Two baskets were also half full of smaller potatoes, from marble-sized on up, some brown, some red. Now the second potato bed awaits the arrival of more potato archeologists.

All September it’s been harvest time in the Touchstone garden. Ginny and Tamara’s 8-, 9-, and 10-year-old students’ garden responsibilities include harvesting, preserving, and seed saving so they’ve been picking vegetables as they’ve become ripe and ready to eat. These “locally grown” tomatoes, beans, potatoes, beets, carrots, green peppers, onions, and garlic were subsequently cooked and eaten with enthusiasm by the children in Tamara, Ginny, Sheryl, and Jane’s classes. Jane’s kids (5- and 6-year-olds) turned the potatoes they dug – all 12 pounds of them – into super-crispy “Oven ‘Fries’” which reportedly disappeared entirely in seconds. (Recipe below.) Sheryl’s 4- and 5-year-olds chopped and simmered tomatoes in a slow-cooker for spaghetti sauce and also made salsa. These were tasted by many and eaten by more than expected.  Ginny’s students cooked up a huge pot of “Harvest Soup” for a class potluck. The word in the hallway the next day was that some kids ate three bowls of soup that night. These same two classes wrote a “Harvest Soup Song” and sang it for the whole school Community Meeting last Friday. Looks as if we’ll be growing more veggies in the coming year!

Oven “Fries” Recipe (from Weight Watchers)
1 and 1/4 lb. potatoes peeled and cut into 1/2 inch strips
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
4 tsp. oil
1 tsp. paprika

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a nonstick baking sheet with nonstick spray. In a large bowl combine potatoes, 1/4 tsp. of the salt, and the sugar. Add cold water to cover. Soak 15 minutes. Drain and blot dry.
 In another bowl toss potatoes with oil and paprika. Place in a single layer on baking sheet. Bake, turning potatoes over as they brown, until cooked through and crisp, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 tsp. salt