October 26, 2015 - 23:46
"In a real sense a potato plant is immortal -- the Russet Burbanks that Lloyd, and all of Idaho, grew were literlly chips off the old block of Luther's original. There is something divine in this potency, but it needs care and protection. Unlike grain, Lloyd would say dismissively, which can be stored indefinitely, there is an art to strong potatoes. They come out of the ground at about fifty five degrees and are transported to the cellar, where the temperature is slowly lowere, half a degree a day, until it reaches a careful forty-five. The breathing rate of the potato slows. Usually they can stay that way for almost a year before they start to wither and die. Of course, that is the problem with living things -- they have a life span that cannot be exceeded." (112-113)
"Secondly, we believe anti-exoticism to be explicitly racist, and having fought for Freedom and Democracy against Hitler, I do not intend to promote Third Reich eugenics in our family garden." (67)
"I know. It just seems so dead now. But it's not dead at all. At rest. Deep in the soil. It's so peaceful. It's never like this in Hawaii. Everything's growing all the time -- a regular hotbed of vegetative activity. But here..." (63)