Annual potato harvest yields of bevy of spuds

By TNews Staff

A cluster of eager "Explorers" from an after-school program sped from Girdwood School to the Forest Service building Thursday to dig up spuds in an annual potato harvest. 

Among potatoes dug up from three patches were "Tlingit potatoes", a potato grown in Southeast Alaska for possibly more than two centuries. The Tlingit potato is a variant that may have been brought by early indigenous traders thousands of years ago.

Lead Gardener Tim Lydon, of the US Forest Service, briefs ready potato pickers at their facility.  This event was part of the Explorers program. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

"Though the potatoes aren't well suited for French frying, they're perfect in soups, where their creamy texture and somewhat buttery flavor complement salmon," Tim Lydon wrote in a an article for Hakai Magazine. Lydon is the Forest Service's lead gardener and helps run the Explorers program.

The community potato garden is a collaboration between the Forest Service, the Prince William Sound Stewardship Foundation, the Girdwood Community Land Trust and the Girdwood Food Pantry. 

The gardens produced a yield of a half-dozen totes of Yukon Gold, Purple Viking and the unique Tlingit (or "Haida") potato. The potatoes will be given away for free at Girdwood's Food Pantry.

Three garden boxes await digging outside the USFS facility in Girdwood.  (Photo by Soren Wuerth)