Planting potatoes on Good Friday

For the Catholic church, March 29, 2013 is Good Friday and it's about as early as the holiday and its companion -- Easter -- can land on the modern calendar. Good Friday is also the traditional day to plant seed potatoes in gardens. That won't be happening this year in Minnesota.

This is what my backyard looks like.

Reports say that beneath that blanket of snow lies anywhere from two to four feet of frost. That, along with the fact that the temperature has cracked the forty degree mark about once this month means that nobody will be planting anything outdoors in Minnesota for at least three weeks.

Now the tradition of planting potatoes on Good Friday goes way back to when Protestants (Lutherans, etc.) refused to accept potatoes as they weren't mentioned in the bible and Catholics began planting them on Good Friday as a way for others to accept that the potatoes had been baptized. It's a great form of trickery but  it's just not realistic this year.

Don't get me wrong, though. Last year I had potatoes and onions in the ground by Good Friday (which was one week later in 2012) but the month of March is 2012 also saw many days with high temperatures in the 70s and 80s -- something which seems many months away this year.

For now I have my mini greenhouse with well over 200 seedlings growing taller and stronger by the day. That will have to suffice for the next 5-7 weeks until the weather begins to cooperate for us frigid Minnesotans.