a tale of two potatoes

So, Alpine suggested that we try to grow potatoes this year in the garden, so we did. I've got red ones and white ones growing. Not very many... just enough to see if we could grow them and then store them well. I planted about 11 plants of each color, and I have no idea how many potatoes will come from each plant. You are supposed to "hill" the plants every so often so the potatoes aren't exposed to the sun. If they do see the sun, they turn green - you've probably seen green potatoes in the store. My great-grandmother used to say that green potatoes are poison! Needless to say, I want to keep mine hidden from the sun. =) Anyway, I was looking them over yesterday, when i saw a tiny bit of red in the soil. Curiosity got the best of me - and it's hard to be patient when you can't see the progress of how your potatoes are doing! - so I dug around the potato just a bit... you know, just to look at it. Sure enough, it was a potato! It was quite small, though, so i planned to leave it. While digging around that one, though, I came across a fairly big one. My excitement got the better of me, so I dug it up to taste it. I covered the little one back up and headed for the house. I turned to call for Mancha and noticed that she had something in her mouth. I told her to "drop it," and she did... she must have decided that if I could dig up a potato, then she could, too! She got the little potato that I hoped would grow into a bigger one! Silly dog. Alpine and I cooked and ate the big potato, and Mancha got to eat her small one. Now, I just hope that she doesn't make a habit of this!