Planting Potatoes on Good Friday
April 11, 2022
Planting Potatoes on Good Friday?
The idea of planting potatoes on Good Friday, in fact, the entire concept of planting your garden on Good Friday has some spiritual ties to the past. Many people see the spiritual significance of gardening as planting your hopes and dreams with each seed and crop variety. I have heard people tell me for years about the spiritual significance of planting a seed and watching it grow into something beautiful and mature into a life sustaining vegetable or fruit, this, against many odds and perils of success. Some compare this process as the cycle of life and mirrors life itself.
Planting potatoes on Good Friday is used as a time when the soil temperatures are warm enough to promote growth. Some people think of the religious ties of planting potatoes. When preparing potatoes for planting the seed, potatoes are cut in half or thirds. Thus, each seed had a cut side and a side with “eyes.” The potato is planted with the cut side down as this symbolizes death. The “eyes” are planted up as this symbolizes grown that will reach the heaven’s. This is the resurrection story of hope rising out of darkness and death.
When potatoes were first introduced into England by Sir Walter Raleigh, newspapers printed editorials against it, ministers preached sermons against it, and the general public wouldn’t touch it. It was supposed to sterilize the soil in which it had been planted and cause all manner of strange illnesses-even death. There were, however, a few brave men who did not believe all the propaganda being shouted against it. It was seen as an answer to famine among the poorer classes and as a healthful and beneficial food. Still, these few noblemen in England could not persuade their tenants to cultivate the potato. It was years before all the adverse publicity was overcome and the potato became popular.”
The origin of needing to plant your potatoes on Good Friday dates all the way back to the 1600s. Being of suspicious minds, people thought the potatoes could possibly carry evil spirits, so to avoid that you should plant the potatoes on Good Friday and sprinkle the spot with Holy water. The Creole culture in Louisiana, is said to believe that no one should work in the garden or plant anything on Good Friday.
Why is there a tie to planting them on Good Friday before the Easter resurrection? And why, in many cases, do people wait to plant their entire garden on Good Friday? In essence, it’s tied to resurrection, and to the survival of light out of darkness. Potatoes, especially, a member of the nightshade family, grow “in the dark” (thus why we “hill” around leaves and stems to grow more tubers) and turn into food that is uniquely different from any other root-bearing plant in that they provide hearty starch and life-giving nutrients on the table, even without bread, meats, or other fruits or vegetables.
There is a resurrection of people and families returning to gardening. This could be because it is a healthy activity families can do together. It could be the current cost of food. It could be a desire to live a healthier life. It could be because of the religious ideas to life’s cycle and the resurrection story. I happen to believe it is all of these together. No matter you reason for gardening it is the right thing to do for a healthier life style.
Planting potatoes on Good Friday is always a goal. Sometimes it is just a nasty cold rainy day but I always try to plant at least one potatoes on Good Friday. But if it is an unpleasant day why not wait for a better day. Potatoes can be planted anytime to July first, and you will still have time for a crop. I usually stager my plantings at two week intervals so that my harvest will allow me fresh potatoes through the growing season, and it doesn’t make harvesting necessary all at once. Digging potatoes is hard work.
Don’t forget to check your blood sugars at least every 4 hours. Stay in range and stay healthy.
Resources for today’s blog: Eating Buckets.com, Cedar River Garden Center, Palo, Iowa; Ted Lare Garden Center, Cumming, Iowa: Iowa State Extension.