Crop Experiment Yields Results

 I am the first person to admit that I'm not a gardener. My dad was a great gardener and grew much of what our family ate during the year. I should have paid more attention to my dad's methods growing up, but I was uninterested in learning the art of gardening, I guess.

When we moved into our home in Riverton, it came with some very nice garden boxes. I considered this my opportunity to try my hand at gardening. Some produce has worked out well, while others not so much. Our best successes have been with tomatoes, zucchini, and strawberries. We have had loads of tomatoes and zucchini to use and share with others this year. I have made a ton of zucchini bread this summer.

Some gardening failures have been corn, carrots, peas, lettuce, cantaloupe, watermelon, and string beans. We did get some use from them, but not a great success. This last Spring, I decided that I wanted to see what it would be like to harvest potatoes, so I quartered a red potato that I had that had a few roots growing from it, planted the pieces into the garden box, made sure it got water and fertilizer, and waited to see what happened. I read that potatoes are ready to harvest when the leaves on the plant start to turn brown. Seeing brown leaves this week, I decided to just yank a plant out of the garden to see if there were any potatoes and a couple came into view. I was impressed! My idea to bury (plant) the potato pieces worked well.

Yesterday, I pulled up the rest of the roots and this is the result. We harvested way more potatoes than I ever anticipated just from four small pieces.

Last night, I made garlic mashed potatoes for dinner with them just to test the flavor.

They turned out delicious and went well with a garden salad and some baby back ribs that I purchased at Peterson's Grocery Store.

We have plenty of potatoes for us to eat and extra to share with others.

Speaking of gardening, in the scriptures we read that we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7). That scripture is in reference to the law of the harvest or the law of consequences. Just as planting seeds in the ground produces a harvest of the same kind, our actions -- good or bad-- produce corresponding results. If someone sows kindness, faith, and obedience to God, the "harvest" will yield blessings, peace, and spiritual growth. If someone sows selfishness, sin, or neglect, the results will eventually be sorrow, loss, or regret.

I'm so glad that I have been given the chance to try gardening here in Utah, along with harvesting fruit from our fruit trees. It has brought me a lot of joy. It is much easier to be successful here than the Lancaster desert where we used to live. The law of the harvest is in full swing here.