First Potatoes, Last Potatoes

We were having dinner with our friend Kelli on Friday night and I looked at her lovely garden, growing so stately in her backyard. Kelli (it bears noting) is a master gardener.

Me: Our garden is such a disappointment this year. 
Kelli: You say that every year.
Me: Yeah. Well, I really mean it this year.

But, of course I wasn't really aware that I say it every year and I did feel bad upon returning home to realize that it's not that bad in the garden. It's just so hard when you have to wait a whole year to try again...Such is the life of a farmer. Yet...As I write Murray is in the kitchen washing up the first meal of green-beans that I picked just minutes ago and potatoes that she dug while I was harvesting those. Such is the life of a farmer as well, I suppose...

Maybe it doesn't really matter that somehow the "pole" beans ended up in big "bush-bean" clumps? What matters is that they are a delicious snack at 6:30 in the morning when I'm out doing watering on what promises to be an 80 degree day...

Maybe it doesn't really matter that what you see above is the sum total harvest from the potato crop which probably amounts to about three more potatoes than were originally planted? What matters is that there is something totally satisfying about hunting through soil for heirloom purple potatoes and a Washington native yellow variety and the way it makes you feel like you might just being doing a small part in the war against monoculture...

Maybe what really matters is that Mother Nature seems to abound most with lessons that resound in more areas of life than just filling a belly. How fun is is that after all the effort spend attempting to cultivate potatoes in the garden, the only ones that really grew were the ones that sprung on their own accord from the compost pile?! My curiosity got the better of me after digging in the front, so I just reached down under a leaf and a pile of grass clippings and found: Ta Da! Without even a bit of digging these beauties:

So, I'm marveling a bit at the ways things sometimes just work out, independent of the best laid plans, how humbling satisfaction can spring from a compost pile, and how delicious dinner harvested from your imperfect urban garden really can be...