It hasn't been a melon year (they like lots of heat) but we have finally harvested some melons.  We are handing some of them out as an "extra" item this week because we are unsure of their quality, given the weather.  Watermelons tend to be pretty good, even when a little under-ripe.  Some of our cantelopes aren't too sweet but can be improved with a little sweetener.  

We've been waiting on a tool to dig the potatoes and it finally came so we now have plenty of potatoes!  We have several varieties of potatoes that you will likely see in the coming weeks:

Adirondack Blue: These beautiful potatoes have dark purple skin and purple flesh.  Unlike a lot of purple versions of vegetables, they stay purple when cooked. They are great for roasting, mashing, or potato salad.  Low starch content (see below for the relationship between starch content and cooking uses).

Adirondack Red: Similar to Adirondack Blue, Adirondack Red have reddish purple skin and reddish/pink flesh.  Both of these potatoes are high in antioxidants and add beautiful color to potato dishes.  Low starch content.

Castile: A nice looking potato with white skin and white flesh, this is one of a few standard white potatoes that we are growing this year.  Medium to high starch content.

Chieftan: A standard red skinned, white flesh potato. Low starch content.

Chippewa: A great producer, we grow a lot of this white skinned, white flesh potato.  Medium starch content.

Kennebec : Another potato with white skin and white flesh that has been around for a long time, Kennebec has been a mainstay at Common Thread for several years so we decided to trial it against some of the whites we've been growing.  Medium starch content.

Keuka Gold: These are a little funny looking with buff scurfy skin but they are a nice pale yellow flesh potato that is often compared to Yukon Gold.  They are moist and creamy.  Medium starch content.

Cooking tips for potatoes:
* When boiling, the higher the starch content, the more disintegration you'll see. Red varieties are almost always low in starch, and thus hold together well.
* For baking: just about anything will bake. A low starch baked potato will be moist
while a high starch potato will be drier. Baking texture comes down to personal
preference and so it is hard to come to a consensus about which is better.
* For frying, high starch potatoes will chip or fry better. Potatoes get sweeter with extended storage at low temperatures (this is considered a bad thing with potatoes).  Sugar turns brown when cooked, so avoid storing potatoes for frying at low temperatures. 
* Generally high starch potatoes do not mash well.

My favorite ways to cook potatoes are to make oven fries (slice potatoes into sticks, toss with oil and salt and roast in the oven), mashed potatoes, or potato salad.  

Store potatoes in a dark, dry, cool place.  Sometimes potatoes become exposed to light, causing them to turn a greenish color. Do not eat this part of the potato, as it contains toxins  For additional interesting information about different types of potatoes, check out potatogoodness.com