Soft Dirt that goes Crunch

We finally got it done! All the tubers are up, and the results seem to be better than we had anticipated. I met my sisters over at the Russell Street garden around 1:30 (the heat of the day!)and found that underneath the crunchy crust of the soil, many of the tubers appeared to be undamaged by the harshness of La Nina. Once we plunged our shovel blades deep into the soil within the radius of tuber growth, we were able to easily loosen the soil, identifying large and extended clumps of tubers. As we picked up the clumps, we found that some of the stems easily snapped off, causing a collective groan, but we kept the clumps anyway, on the chance that the tubers are still attached to the more submerged section of stem. We were quite a trio, bundled up in our winter gear, wearing mismatched pairs of gloves that quickly became muddy and cold. It took us about an hour to get everything up and loaded. These lovely little promises of life are now safely ensconced in my storage room, ready to be cleaned, divided, labeled and snuggled down into pine shavings for the long cold winter ahead. We are so happy to have them join the rest of the group!