Grabbling Potatoes

[GoDawgs]

The Blind Pig and The Acorn blog is something in my inbox every morning. It's done by a lady up in the mountains of NC and is about life in Appalachia now and back then. This morning she talks about "grabbling" potatoes and explaining the origin of the phrase:

grab, grabble, gravel verb
To dig up with the hands, esp a potato early in the season, and smooth back the dirt around the plant to leave it intact.
1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 293-94 To “grabble ‘taters” is to pick from a hill of new potatoes a few of the best, then smooth back the soil without disturbing the immature ones. 1969 GSMNP-38:106 They’d plant a few rows of early potatoes to grabble out. 1977 Hamilton Mountain Memories 33 Papa’s big potato patch was outside the garden and we were not to “grabble” there, for he said it kept the plants from producing big potatoes. 1980 Brewer Hit’s Gettin’ In east Tennessee, a few people still “grabble” for new potatoes. A few others “grabble” for fish under rocks and stream banks. 1981 Brewer Wonderment 92 What Lucinda calls “grannying” is called “grabbling” in some quarters. 1990 Oliver Cooking Hazel Creek 13 Everyone looked forward to new potatoes which, as soon as they had matured sufficiently were “grabbled” out of the ground and then boiled in their jackets until tender; a gravy of flour & milk was then made in the water & the potatoes cooked & served in this. 1995 Montgomery Coll. Grab, Grabble = to grab a few potatoes without disturbing the plant (Cardwell).

~Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English

Then she gave a recipe for those little new potatoes, freshly "grabbled" that morning. I always look forward to cooking up the little potatoes that are always there when all of the potatoes are dug up! They're just special.

[Whwoz]

Here we refer to this practise as Bandicooting

[Uncle_Feist]

I always planted enough to pull the entire hill and founder.

[bower]

In Newfoundland you "firk a few potatoes". That is not with a fork, it's the 'grabbling' thing.
New potatoes are so good!

[JRinPA]

Never heard the term, we never grew potatoes here.

[Gardadore]

New term for me. I have done that but always afraid I will disturb the plant too much. Amazed at how well the remaining potatoes keep on growing for a later “grab”!

[Jeannine Anne]

Firkerling where I sprung from

[Danny]

Early new potatoes with their jackets, cooked with green beans and onions/garlic, maybe a bit of bacon or ham fat to dress them, good chunk of bread and butter, so satisfying and good. Always a hit.

[svalli]

My grandmother taught me how to do that and in Finnish she called it something related to fingers. I do not have good translations for the word, since when I googled my translation, it has an other meaning, which has nothing to do with gardening.

We love early new potatoes and I grow those in 3 gallon containers, which have an inner part with big openings for pulling out some potatoes, while leaving the others to grow. I can usually grabble potatoes 2 to 3 times from them before emptying the whole container for the remaining ones. I planted my containers week ago and have those now in the greenhouse, since the nights are still freezing cold. First grabbling should be around midsummer.

[claire838]

I love how The Blind Pig and The Acorn brings out these pieces of Appalachian life that would otherwise be forgotten. It’s not just nostalgia, it’s a reminder of how closely people used to live with the rhythm of nature.

[bower]

I want to try for a few early container potatoes, and I wondered whether the special potato pots or grow bags were worth it...
I guess you could call them grabbling pots!
Definitely would be the earliest spuds, but I found it hard to imagine how well it would work, whether the dirt would also fall out the side etc. I guess it's no worry to put some paper down while 'grabbling', and I guess what's left must 'settle'? Without backfilling more dirt.
Any thoughts the design for potato pots? The ones I saw in the store were more expensive than an all purpose pot of the same size, so I only got plain pots .. so far.

[Jeannine Anne]

I have bought soft bag type pots for potatoes for the first time this year although I have grown in regular big pots ,many times. I stated to plant them a couple of days ago with the bags in the greenhouse for now. They open with a Velcro trap door and it is very stiff to open. They are quite a decent size. . They were quite cheap. The ones that were available to me in Canada were expensive so I bought them overseas for a quarter of the price with free shipping and they look identical. I will let you know how they go as the season progresses. Some of the varieties I am planting are determinates and some not so it will be interesting to see how they go.I have planted 3 tubers to a bag and only in the lower 8 inches of soil, I will top up as I go along which is what I do with solid pots.