I am not kidding, it’s time to start chitting

I am not kidding, it’s time to start chitting

We’ve been chitting for years now. I learned it from my father, who learned it from his father who, well you get the idea. It’s the first garden related activity that we do each spring. As soon as our seed potatoes arrive, we carefully take them out of the box and lay them gingerly in a sunny window to start chitting. Chitting is the name for the process that encourages tubers or the “eyes” of the potatoes to start growing. The benefit of chitting is that you will have a stronger more abundant crop that you can harvest sooner.

It’s important to chit your potatoes in sunshine so that the tubers will become strong. You know when you leave potatoes too long in the back of the pantry and they grow those long white tubers, well you don’t want the long white tubers, they are weak and won’t get you anywhere, so find a nice spot in a sunny window.

A good rule of thumb is to start chitting about three to four weeks before you intend on planting your potato crop. I find it uplifting and encouraging to see the potatoes sprouting while there is still heaps of snow covering the ground and you might too.

Happy chitting.