Preparing Potatoes for the Garden

I have been awaiting the arrival of the seed potatoes at the local co-op for a couple weeks.  Then this past weekend they appeared:  sacs of lovely seed potatoes just waiting to be planted.  The last few years I have stuck with red potatoes.  I think they were a variety called Norland.  This year I wanted to branch out a little so I am planting 4 different varieties of potatoes

Viking Potatoes

 

Yukon Gold Potatoes

 

Norland Potatoes

 

Purple Majesty Potatoes

 

This last variety of potato is supposed to have dark purple skin and flesh that make it high in antioxidants.  I'm not sure how much we will like this kind and they are not known to keep well so I am not planting as many of these as I am the others.

 

Right now they are hanging out in the sunlight on the kitchen table until they grow bigger shoots from their eyes.  When the shoots are about an inch long I will cut them into smaller "seeds" and let them dry out for a day before I plant them in the garden.