spuds

"modern varieties (spanish: papa mejorada) are light skinned, white fleshed, smooth, and generally larger than local or "native" varieties, which are described a chalo. chalo is used by both quechua and aymara speakers to describe mixed collections of potatoes with many colors and shapes. the word appears in bertonio's (1612)aynara dictionasry (cchalu), suggesting that andean farmers distinguished mixed collections long before the appearance of modern varieties." "farmer's bounty: locating crop diversity in the contemporary world." stephen b. brush p.105 __________________________________________________________ no chalo here...organic certified but definitely a "modern variety"...then again they aren't "light skinned" or particularly "smooth"..."modern" perhaps, but not completely industrialized poatatoes...some of the potato plants on campus had reached the end of the season while others ( second photo ) are still carrying on...i went to campus to do some maintenance ( read weeding ) and decided to bring in the ones that were done while i was there...three plants netted a dozen potatoes ( a symmetrical four tubers each...which is odd but obviously not unheard of ) just shy of two pounds and more to come there and at home...speaking of home, four of the squash plants flowered overnight ( and the blooms have already faded...a lot like the cowpeas when they will flower later this summer [ or early autumn ] cowpeas are self-pollinating..i wonder if squash is...ah...more work )...the last photo is of a newly weeded pgp at about 9:15 this morning...the jerusalem artichokes continue to flower...the maize is doing well and i'm collecting all the gamagrass seed i can find...so far so good.