Well-Fed Grinnies

The sweet potato patch didn’t produce many extra-large ones this year. The plot these came from was about 15′ x 20′. They struggled to get going when they were planted in the spring. Our soil it heavier with clay than sweet potatoes like, even after some years of amendments. Quite a few of these grew in a horseshoe shape, or some other crazy bend, due to the difficulty of pushing through the soil. It doesn’t affect the taste of course, but they don’t look like the ones that are commercially grown in sandy loam.

five bus tubs of sweet potatoes
Sweet Potato Harvest

We didn’t see many thirteen-line ground squirrels in the yard this summer. It turns out they were hiding under the foliage of the sweet potatoes, digging and having a feast. Hardly any of these escaped with no squirrel damage.

sweet potato damaged by thirteen-line ground squirrels.
Squirrel Damage

We should be well fed too. We just have to not mind eating after the rodents.

Incidentally, the term grinny or grinnie seems to be a local name for these critters. I haven’t heard anyone who claims to know where the name originated.

Ground Squirrel Photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.com

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Jon

Awestruck son of the Sovereign of the universe, from whom all rights and responsibilities of men derive.

10 thoughts on “Well-Fed Grinnies”

  6. I thought the rabbits eating my roses was irritating. Especially, the little bush I should have kept in a pot for a while that they ate down and grew back three times before it ended up a dead nub that didn’t return this summer. Rabbits have to eat too. But the red rose bush came back! No rabbits involved in that story though.

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