Just before the summer monsoon rolls in, the potato patch has its busiest weeks of the year. As the leaves turn yellow and begin to wither, the tubers underground are fattening up. Turn the soil with a homi, the short-handled Korean hand hoe, and the potatoes come up one after another, still clinging to the roots. For anyone who tends a garden, it's the moment a whole season's work pays off. This summer, that scene played out at the Dream Garden, a community garden run by the City of Daejeon. Residents harvested 800 kg of potatoes from the plots they had tended together, and they gave all of it to neighbors who are struggling.
A Garden Grown Together, Shared Together
The Dream Garden is a shared garden built on leftover patches of urban land that the City of Daejeon opens to residents and tends alongside them. Each family takes charge of one raised row. In spring they plant seed potatoes, then spend nearly three months watering and hilling soil up around the plants. The 800 kg of potatoes they raised this way went to low-income households through local social service agencies.
Potatoes are well suited to this kind of giving. Kept somewhere cool, they last a month or two without trouble. Boiled on their own, they make a meal, and they fill you up even without much seasoning. Freshly dug garden potatoes have thin skins and plenty of moisture, so the families who receive them can steam them right away.
Why a Potato Can Carry a Meal
A single potato supplies carbohydrates, the basic fuel our bodies run on, and a surprising amount of vitamin C. Because the vitamin C in potatoes is surrounded by starch, it's known to hold up relatively well when the potatoes are boiled or steamed. Potatoes are also rich in potassium, which helps the body flush out excess sodium from salty food.
One thing worth remembering is how to store them. When potatoes are exposed to light, their skins turn green and a compound called solanine builds up. It's best to cut those green parts away before eating. Keep potatoes in a dark, cool place out of sunlight, and try storing them with an apple, which slows sprouting.
What a City Garden Leaves Behind
The Dream Garden's potato giveaway is welcome news for reasons that go beyond the harvest itself. City gardens turn empty lots green, give neighbors a reason to say hello across the rows, and let children get their hands on soil and growing plants. When the food grown there finds its way back to neighbors' tables, the satisfaction of growing and the satisfaction of giving end up in the same place.
You don't need a big plot. Potatoes will grow in a balcony container or a grow bag. Plant a single piece of seed potato in spring, and by summer you can share a meal with your family made from potatoes you dug yourself. This summer, try sharing even one bag of what your garden produces with a neighbor. The spirit the Dream Garden showed starts that close to home.
