We dug up the first bush of young potatoes

On St. Elijah's Day, August 2, the first potato bush was dug up.

A neighbor at the dacha told me there's a tradition of digging up the first potatoes and boiling the young tubers on Elijah's Day, to honor the Prophet Elijah. Then the roots will grow large, healthy, and will store well. After all, Elijah is not only the lord of rain, thunder, and lightning, but also the patron of harvest and fertility. I'd never heard of this tradition before, and of course, I decided to dig up a few bushes.

We planted potatoes late, almost at the end of May, the weather was not favorable, we planted them first purple potatoes, about a week earlier. So I wasn't really counting on a harvest.

So I decided to dig up the last purple potato bush by the path. I immediately discovered large tubers, so I had to call my husband with a shovel. He dug up the bush. What they found weren't tiny peas, but fully ripe tubers.

Our potatoes still have almost a month to grow. We usually dig them up in late August or early September. If the tubers are quite large now, what will they be like by the end of summer?

At home, I washed the potatoes thoroughly and counted 16. I weighed them—they came out to 1 kg 700 grams.

On some tubers I found some spots and growths.

I peeled the skin with a knife - all the tubers were clean, smooth, and juicy.

What delicious boiled young potatoes turned out with butter, dill, and garlic!

Our potato plants are mostly thick and vigorous, with green leaves. Some are still blooming.

But there are a few bushes—sickly, with yellow, drying foliage. Perhaps they're not getting enough water, or they're sick. Or maybe some of the bushes are dying because the garden cats are to blame: they've been using the potato rows for toileting, tearing up the beds, and rolling around on the ground. I had to spread thorny raspberry stems and zucchini leaves between the rows.

And one more thing. After flowering, our potatoes produce green, round fruits containing seeds. A gardener I know told me that as soon as the potatoes finish flowering, you need to pick off the flowers to prevent seeds from forming, as they'll rob the potatoes of their nutrients. She only plants two rows of potatoes, while our garden is mostly potato-based. So we never pick off the flowers—we don't have time—and the green fruits eventually fall off the bush on their own.