Potato Harvest

We have just done our first harvest of potatoes. It is so satisfying digging through the soft dirt and finding little (sometimes huge) potatoes. There is always a slight competition as to whose potato patch will have the most and the biggest potatoes.
Growing potatoes is so so easy. They are especially good to grow if you don't have much space. We grow our potatoes in a stack of tyres. Although there has been some talk that perhaps the tyres might leach heavy metals into the soil. You could also use a large pot too if you didn't want to use tyres. Or you can plant them straight into the garden.
We brought seed potatoes a number of months ago, just from the local garden store. You then place the potatoes in the dirt placed in the bottom tyre or pot (or you can plant them straight into the ground).
As the potatoes sprout and you see the green shoots starting to sprout through the dirt you top up the tyre/pot/garden with more dirt - ensuring that you cover the green shoots. You keep doing this until you have a stack as high as you like. We usually have a stack of tyres between 2-4tyres high.
Once the stack has reached as high as you want to go you just leave the shoots to grow. Make sure the potato plants have plenty of water and sun. You should also give them some regular liquid fertiliser to help get a bumper crop.
Once the shoots start drooping and turing yellow you can start harvesting. If you want smaller potatoes you do it early, if you want larger potatoes you leave them a little bit longer. You can get some new potatoes without disturbing the rest of the crop too much. Just scrap away the top layers and pull out the small ones.
When you want to harvest the potatoes you basically just sift through the soil and pick out the potatoes. Don't use a fork or spade as you could accidentally stab your potato, ruining it. You can buy fancy little potato harvesting scoops from garden shops and online but we just use our hands. They are just as effective.
Store your potatoes in a dark, cool place. We generally keep ours in a hessian or cotton bag at the back of the pantry.