By Grace McCollum
The sun’s rays cast themselves on the town of Mount Vernon on a hot summer day. A slight breeze travels through the hair of sophomore Alina Merlak on this ordinary afternoon. Shovel in hand and a spring in her step she makes her way to her garden. She digs around and feels the dirt sift between her fingers, carefully placing the buds that will soon thrive. Once finished she feels a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. Now all that’s left is the wait. She has the entire summer to water the garden and anticipate the day she will finally get to dig up her potatoes.

Merlak has been growing potatoes ever since the summer of sixth grade. It all started with a small trip to Ace Hardware with her dad where she first spotted the potato buds. One bud produces approximately 4-5 potatoes, and by the end of the summer she has buckets of them. After her first summer growing potatoes she realized it was something she enjoyed doing and wanted to continue doing. “I also just really love potatoes,” said Merlak.

Occasionally throughout the summer Merlak digs up a potato plant to see how they are doing. She takes into account the size of the potatoes, and their overall appearance. Since the potatoes grow underground it is more challenging to tell when they are done. A good indicator of healthy potatoes is a healthy flower above ground. The longer the plant grows, the bigger the potatoes will be. When the plant starts to die she knows that they are done growing and are ready to be picked.

The potatoes grow in a small garden on the side of her house. Along with potatoes she also grows cucumbers, zucchini, and a variety of flowers. Through her potatoes Merlak has found that she really enjoys gardening and would like to have an even larger garden eventually. “I would like to try to grow different types of flowers, carrots, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries,” said Merlak.

With all these potatoes, Merlak has plenty to experiment with. Her favorite things to make with her potatoes are french fries, and an artery testing concoction called ‘The Mega Potato’. The Mega Potato consists of a baked potato, topped with mashed potatoes, topped with french fries, finished off with potato chips. “I want to try to make bigger, and better Mega Potatoes and see how crazy they get,” said Merlak.

One of Merlak’s best memories of growing potatoes is from her first summer. She grew so many potatoes that she had two very large buckets full of them. “I remember I had to carry the buckets down to my basement because there wasn’t any room upstairs,” said Merlak. Another time she grew an enormous potato – bigger than her hand. “It was MASSIVE,” said Merlak!

When August rolls around she can finally begin to dig up her potatoes. “My favorite part about growing potatoes is digging them up. It’s really fun because it’s like finding treasure,” Merlak said. Most of them end up being the size of her hand, and go straight to the kitchen where she cooks up some of her signature Mega Potatoes.