Lessons from a tuber crop

Lessons from a tuber crop (potatoes – unlike beets, carrots, turnips – are not a root crop, but a tuber, a stem that grows underground).

Fruit, noun. Any product of plant growth; any edible part of a plant; product, result.

It’s May and I am digging my potatoes, slowly but hopefully surely. (It was May 2024 when I wrote this.) Here are a few lessons I’ve learned.

The results can be described as no fruit, fruit, more fruit, much fruit (John 15:1-5).

Zechariah 4:10 For who hath despised the day of small things?

All my potatoes had fruit, with some having more and some having less. If the taters (tubers) were larger there were often fewer of them. If they were smaller, there were often more of them. The amount of fruit given could be deceptive to the naked eye. If the tubers were weighed rather than counted, those that appeared to have more fruit might have less fruit – which made me think, our casual calculations of how much fruit is on some other Christian’s vine might likely be misguided.

Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty. 

Jesus did, in a sense. (For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him).

Some fruit comes in unexpected shapes.

If you are used to buying your potatoes in a grocery store, you might think they are all nicely round or oval. And they mostly are, but apparently the odd-shaped potatoes get passed over for lesser jobs.

What you see above ground hints at what is not seen. 

Fine plants. Cracked soil. Maybe even a top part of a tuber visible above ground.

Sometimes you have to dig deeper. 

All the potatoes are not just below the surface. Some are right under the surface and some are deeper. It is easy for the shallow digger to overlook good fruit.

There are enemies of the fruit – for example, the potato bug, fire ants, as well as weeds & grass. The potato bug is a perennial enemy, whose larvae infestation can destroy the foliage on potato plants. Last year I fought them on three fronts. This year I saw one adult beetle, crushed it in my hand, and (surprisingly) never saw another beetle or its larvae. Weeds and grass flourished this year, and I had a hard time keeping up. These compete with the potato for water and nutrition. Fire ants can cause some damage to the tuber and plenty to the hands digging them!

1 Peter 5:8 ...your adversary the devil...

1 Kings 21:20 ...Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?

The fruit brings joy – for what it is (the result of laboring together with God) and what it does (provide food/sustenance).

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

God gives the increase (Psalm 67:6; 1 Corinthians 3:6). Without Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5).