grab, grabble, gravel verb
To dig up with the hands, esp a potato early in the season, and smooth back the dirt around the plant to leave it intact.
1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 293-94 To “grabble ‘taters” is to pick from a hill of new potatoes a few of the best, then smooth back the soil without disturbing the immature ones. 1969 GSMNP-38:106 They’d plant a few rows of early potatoes to grabble out. 1977 Hamilton Mountain Memories 33 Papa’s big potato patch was outside the garden and we were not to “grabble” there, for he said it kept the plants from producing big potatoes. 1980 Brewer Hit’s Gettin’ In east Tennessee, a few people still “grabble” for new potatoes. A few others “grabble” for fish under rocks and stream banks. 1981 Brewer Wonderment 92 What Lucinda calls “grannying” is called “grabbling” in some quarters. 1990 Oliver Cooking Hazel Creek 13 Everyone looked forward to new potatoes which, as soon as they had matured sufficiently were “grabbled” out of the ground and then boiled in their jackets until tender; a gravy of flour & milk was then made in the water & the potatoes cooked & served in this. 1995 Montgomery Coll. Grab, Grabble = to grab a few potatoes without disturbing the plant (Cardwell).
~Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
One of the finer things in life is a pan of freshly grabbled taters that have been roasted. I love potatoes made about any way you can think of, but new potatoes are better than ones that have been cured.
Here’s the recipe for new potatoes from mine and Jim’s cookbook Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food Recipes & Stories from Mountain Kitchens.
NEW POTATOES
The first new potatoes of the year are looked forward to from the moment seed potatoes are carefully cut and planted in late winter. Southern Appalachian folks will often rush the enjoyment of this staple of diet by grabbling (gently removed small potatoes without pulling up the entire plant) while allowing other tubers to continue growing. To feast on new potatoes gently scrape the thin skin. Don’t try to remove it all—what remains will add a bit of delicious crunch or texture to the finished dish. Small potatoes don’t need to be cut, but if your new potatoes are already rather large, cut into pieces about the size of a golf ball. Boil potatoes in salted water until they are barely fork tender. Do not overcook. Remove potatoes from water and allow to drain well. Heat butter or bacon grease in a cast iron skillet on medium high. Once pan is hot add new potatoes, turning during cooking so as to brown all sides. The browning process also works well by placing the pan in a hot oven.
TIP: New potatoes go especially well with soup beans, cornbread, and kilt lettuce.
If you haven’t picked up your copy of the cookbook yet, you can find it here.
Last night’s video: The Garden is Trying to Get Away from Us!
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Never heard of Grabbling, but I got a chuckle on your vlog when Matt grabbled those potatoes and you said he’s hunting for Easter eggs. Hope and praying for your granny’s health.
My Pa used to let me scratch out potatoes in his garden when I was less than 5 years old. I think it was a way to keep me out of mama’s way while she cooked supper and kept me out trouble while in the garden with him. He once showed me how to pull up a young, sweet carrot then went back to other garden work. I think I must have pulled and eaten about all his carrots.
Blessings to all, especially to Miss Louzine . . .
One more thing and I’ll shut up. Folks who think they can go out and buy new potatoes at a store are in for a surprise. You might luck up and find some at a farmers market or roadside stand but have to be leery of those too unless you know exactly what you are looking for or who is selling them to you. You may find them marked as new potatoes in stores but those are probably just small potatoes which are cured just like their bigger counterparts. Cured potatoes have been left to dry out and for the skin to thicken which helps them store for longer periods. New potatoes are fresh out of the ground without a chance of beginning the process that prepares them to regenerate in the spring. One day is the length of time I would give before a new potato is no longer new.
A new potato when cut will produce a liquid if you squeeze it in your hand. They feel heavier than little potatoes their size. They have almost no skin. You can scrub the skin off with a dish cloth. They bruise very easy to the point of being delicate. You handle them with a lighter touch than you do eggs. If you are taking them straight from the garden to the pot you can handle them a little rougher. But, if you dig them in the morning for supper that night you should wash them gently, scrub them if you must, put them in a sealable container and put them in the refrigerator. Leaving them out on the counter works too but I would wash them, wrap them in a wet towel and put them in a sealed container. The point is to keep them moist and at or below the temperature of the soil they just came from. You probably think “Does it really make that much difference?”. Well, it really does! It is the distinction between ordinary small potatoes and New Potatoes.
Last yr. how I hit my youngest grandson to help me dig potatoes was , I told him there’s treasure in there. I said you got to be easy when you find em. The first one he fount his eyes got so big. Tickle him and he kept on and on digging. He helped me till we got em all. O he like the big ones.
Duane Oliver’s “Cooking On Hazel Creek” book’s recipe is what I first remember Mommy cooking with new potatoes. We’re talking about the mid 1950 now. She didn’t have access to his book then. She actually died 15 years before the book came out in 1990 so I assume it was a well known recipe in that area. In any case a bowl of that soup (if you can classify it as soup) and a hunk of cornbread is a meal fit for royals and commoners alike.
Mommy used to cook grabbled new taters in with green beans. I, at that young age, wouldn’t eat greenbeans so I tried, most often unsuccessfully, to take only the taters. I thought that since the other kids liked beans and I liked taters, they should eat the beans and leave me the taters. Such are the thought processes of an immature mind. I grew out of it.
Them little taters were soooo good cooked in bean juice like that. And the juice itself was equally delectable when sopped up by the piece of cornbread in my off hand.
I often negotiated with my siblings for their share of the new potatoes. It cost me more than their assumed value but they were worth it to me.
My 96 yr old sweet Mom was just talking about grabbling potatoes. I remember grabbing potatoes at my grandmother’s farm when I was a child, but after my older sister told me to be careful because I might dig up a big toe, I never helped my grandmother again with grabbling potatoes. Of course my sister also told me that I was adopted, that I was really from Communist China & that I had leukemia because I was so milk white. Hope everyone is having a good day. Tipper, I am praying for Granny & all of y’all. Love sent to you all from Mississippi.
In my part of the world we usually say “scratching” up new potatoes but I’ve heard all the mentioned terms used around here. Have you heard anyone used the term “hoped” in place of “help”? I had an elderly lady as a neighbor and she would always say something like “Let me hoped you break your green beans “. I’ve looked it up and apparently it’s an old English word that you can even find in Shakespeare’s writings.
Robert-I have heard that 🙂
I’ve heard grabbling called “scratching out” too! What part of the world are you from. I came from right hear where Tipper’s base of operations is located.
My grandmother used to say hope instead of help often. “I’ll hope ye pick blackberries”. She also said “hit” for it, often, as well. “Hit sure is hot outside.” Also heard scratching up new potatoes. I was raised in middle Tennessee but live in East TN now and they say “youins” instead of y’all. Love the language but even middle and east TN had different words.
I have never heard of grabbling for potatoes until I watched ya’ll in the garden. Digging taters is what we always called it. I do love new potatoes, even though I don’t grow them, I buy them often. I like to roast them in the oven with olive oil, garlic powder and salt. So good!! When we don’t have new potatoes, I still have potatoes in the house all year. There are just so many ways to enjoy them. Like they say, I never met a potato I didn’t like!!
Us too…home grown is best whatever shape and/or size they come it. God Bless.
We always waited for the ground to crak around the potato bush then we Dug some out \covered back up. I’ve heard of “mudding” for fish under water ! Enjoy all the comments ! Prayers for Granny and family.
New taters are one of the most anticipated products of the home garden. We love em. I plant taters starting in late February then again in late March. I wait til early August and plant again. My garden is in full production right now. Like every year there are some things that do really well and some that don’t. Last year my peppers did unbelievably well, this year not so good.
It was referred to as graveling, and that list of food is so very familiar. Kilt lettuce or wilted lettuce being one my favorite. I am one of the very few I know whose favorite is also mustard greens. I tear them apart and cook down tender in water (when busy crockpot). Then they are lifted with tongs from the water into a cast iron fry pan and fried briskly in bacon grease. D/t health concerns I sometimes use extra virgin olive oil. Top this off with a pan of cornbread, and in my opinion one of the most tasty and economical meals ever eaten, especially since I grow the mustard and save the seed. Sis only likes if I cook them, and I cook those greens the same way my mom did. Mom creamed the new potatoes and she creamed the corn shave from the cob. Home cooked creamed corn puts the canned to shame. The canned creamed corn has made some think they did not like creamed corn. I will buy the rosteneers on sale and actually shave off and freeze the fresh corn to freeze for creamed corn in winter. We also cooked and froze many October beans when they had turned a light tan before hardening. Mom called them “Octobers in the green stage.” Indeed, there were so many inventive ways they used to make those old home grown foods taste fit for a king. Many of my friends trying them for the first time loved the taste. In those days there was not a variety of seasonings to improve the flavor. With only salt, pepper, and the old fashioned bacon grease, those Appalachian women could work miracles.
I think we probably all agree, anything fresh from your garden is a treat. Regardless what you call the process, getting new potatoes is always a treat.
New potatoes boiled with a side of green beans and butter …something to look forward too every blessed year..
Tipper, my raised beds are plum showing out:) Ive been cooking yellow squash about every day and processing zucchini. I think you got excited about picking cucumbers last week and I’ve been excited picking them for a little over two weeks. It is just wonderful to walk out on your patio and pick a tommy toe and eat it right there. I’ve been picking green beans and bell peppers too. I like new potatoes but haven’t grown them in many years. Maybe I will get a couple grow bags next year and try them out.
The first Spring after I married a ‘city girl’ I dug up a spot in the yard and planted 6 tomatoes. My new bride got excited and inquired about other things we might plant. After ascertaining what else she might like to eat I dug a larger space for radishes, cukes, potatoes and a few other things. (I think I commented on the spaghetti a few years ago.) When she saw the tomato plants bloom and little tomatoes appeared she asked why the potato blooms hadn’t produced potatoes. I showed her the new potatoes in the ground and she said, “So that’s why potatoes are always dirty.”
I’m just now beginning to catch up on emails, voice mails and text messages. After being stapled together and sent home week before last I began to have a lot of neck pain and went back to the hospital. I have breaks in two neck vertebras and spent five days in the hospital without even a phone. I’m pretty much grounded for the Summer and much of the Fall so it can heal hopefully without surgery. I’m praying for Granny and her health issues.
Jackie-I’m so glad you are doing better! I’ve been praying for you to have a speedy recovery. I’m sorry there was more damage than you original thought and that you had to stay in the hospital. I will keep praying 🙂
We always called it “graveling” too. My mom would gravel out new potatoes and make creamed potatoes for dinner. She would sometimes surprise us and make mashed potatoes and fried green tomatoes for lunch. I don’t know how she had time to make this special lunch for four energetic kids but she did!
Brings back memories of helping my mother-in-law in her garden when we were first married. I always was amazed how many potatoes were under the dirt. New potatoes are the best! Praying for Granny! Take care and God bless ❣️
I have heard this term grabbing for potatoes many times. Robbie Lynn and I just gabbled/dug some of our taters last week and been eatin some and drying some. She boiled the taters and made the thick gravy to serve them in along with some maters & rice, Mac n cheese & some homemade biscuits. We ate leftovers for 3 days and they got better each time lol.
Grappling describes the act perfectly. I’ve never had new potatoes fresh from a garden. I’ve seen the bags you can get where the sides pull back to grapple. I will have to find a sunny place to put one. Maybe next year. Praying for Granny.
Tater bugs have been so bad the past two years as they left my long ridges with little or no vines. This year I planted a short potato ridge and the Colorado Beetles never arrived! Getting ready to gravel a mess of new taters to cook with my green beans. I will be thinking of Granny today and hope she has green beans for her supper too.
Yep, grew up grabblin’ and still do it. I get my best potatoes that way because it gets too hot too soon and the tops die so big potatoes are not likely. Never tried grabblin’ fish. There are big snapping turtles down there.
I’ve never heard that and I’ve also never had new potatoes straight from the garden. Y’all are making my mouth water! Continued prayers for Granny and all of you ❤️
Up in New York State about 30 years ago, my Polish sister in law ( my favorite btw) would make what she called salt potatoes which is exactly what you got happening here Miss Tipper! Those WERE THE TASTIEST TATER NUGS I EVER ETT!!! I’m a tater, bean and cornbread loving woman! I’d “put on a show” for salt taters cause you talk about good eating- that’s IT!!! I will have to look for some new taters, but now I have a recipe to work with!!! THANKYOU, MRS. PRESSLEY!!!
I never heard the term until your video last night. The word is so perfect for the task, it deserves rises the job perfectly.
Potatoes are one of my favorites, too, for a couple of reasons. One, they taste good, period. Two, they offer me a neat remembrance of my childhood. My mom bought a 20 pound bag of red potatoes every single week as long as I could remember growing up. I can still see that big white paper bag threaded across the top. I don’t think there is anything around my area like that nowadays. We had potatoes at nearly every meal. Fried potatoes, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, hash, brown potatoes, potatoes and cabbage, green beans and potatoes, scalloped potatoes, roasted potatoes, etc. the one difference between my childhood and the way I cook red potatoes today is I rarely peel the potato, whereas my mom always peeled, red potatoes. As a matter of fact, my sister and I were 10 and 11 years old when we started helping my mom peel potatoes. I think today’s standard might call that child endangerment? My sister and I would prepare lunch for my dad when my mom worked outside the house for a few years around that age. We would fry potatoes, first peeling them with a knife, and then cooking them in hot grease, at that young age, just seems a tad bit scary nowadays? I did start teaching my boys at a young age to cook, so maybe it just seems a tad bit scary because of my older age, they are both the main cook and their families today.
Nothing like taters fresh out of the ground. Those are the ones that taste most like taters.
I’ve not heard anyone use the word grabble to refer to diggin potatoes before, that I can recall. I guess I grabbed for my garden potatoes to early this year. I just moved the dirt some and saw the potato about the size of my hand and thought they must be done. The next day I turned over the tub I had them planted in and only found a few smaller potatoes in all that dirt. I planted more potatoes, but they won’t be ready till late fall. Hopefully they will do better.
During a phone call with my nearly 90 yr old aunt last week, we were talking about what we’re getting out of our garden. I told her about the new potatoes I was cooking in a pot of homegrown green beans and she told me that my Mamaw- her mother- used to “gravel” out a few potatoes at a time and leave the rest to continue growing. Jama, my aunt, thought the right word was “grabble” but remembered Mamaw saying “gravel.” Mamaw grew up in Sevierville, Tn. Reading your post today, it seemed like you were writing about her.
Good Monday morning everyone. Daddy always called it graveling but no matter what’s it’s called new potatoes are the best especially on fresh green beans.
Everyone have a wonderful day and stay hydrated. As always praying for all the family✝️ if I may ask, what day is granny’s doctor appointment?
Brenda-it is on Thursday 🙂
We always called them “scribblers”…either way I agree they are delicious. Our favorite way to have them is cooked in with green beans and some ham and served with cornbread and buttermilk.
Believe it or not I get better results from getting down on my hands and knees to dig up my potatoes! I have a potato fork but I always cut up my new potatoes when digging so I have been doing this for years and I love getting my hands in that dirt! My wife usually makes mashed potatoes and they make awesome French fries right out of the garden! God has blessed our garden this year tremendously! We are getting a ton of summer squash! We also have a lot of butternut and spaghetti squash coming on! There is nothing in this world that compares to growing your own food and canning and preserving it for the coming winter! Tastes so good!!!
My garden has gotten away from me!!! I am still getting tomatoes and squash and a few peppers. A Market Bulletin article said to pull green tomatoes and let them ripen inside when temps are high. It’s working plus it keeps the deer and rabbits from getting them.
Stay cool – 98 degrees plus here this week and no rain.
Prayers for Granny.
Same temps and no rain forecast for here this week with feel like temps over a 100. (Greenville, SC ). After this coming weekend it might cool off a little bit. Your mentioning of the Market Bulletin makes me wonder if you live in SC. We did get about 2 tenths of an inch of rain this weekend. To me, Tippers taters look like they may have some damp dirt on them.
I never knew this to be called grabbling. I have some small new potatoes and country ham I intend to add to a pot of fresh green beans picked Saturday that I plan on cooking today. I knew a man when I was growing up that would grabble for fish, after almost drowning one day he stopped doing it. I think doing this now may be illegal in SC.
” With a valid South Carolina fishing license and no additional tags or permits, archery equipment, cast nets, crayfish traps (5 or less), gigs, hand grabbing, minnow seines, minnow traps, landing (dip) net and spears may be used in freshwaters except in Game Zone 1 and lakes owned or managed by the DNR to take nongame fish. This requirement applies to all freshwaters of the state inland of the saltwater-freshwater dividing lines, except privately-owned ponds.”
I copied this from South Carolina’s DNR regulations. The regulation calls it hand grabbing but I’m sure it is the same thing. “Hand Grabbing” is really more descriptive when it pertains to fish. You have to literally grab them as they are are almost constantly in motion whereas taters tend to stay in one spot all their lives if left alone.
You see it is legal to grabble for non gamefish in South Carolina if you have a fishing license. I presume grabbling for new taters is legal too. So, go grab a catfish and fry it up how ever you like yours. Then grabble some new taters and fry them in the same grease. Yum!!
I might have misspoken in my earlier reply. I don’t know you live. You might live in Game Zone 1.
“Game Zone 1 consists of all properties north of the main line of the Norfolk Southern Railroad from the Georgia State line to South Carolina Hwy 183 in Westminister, then north of SC Hwy 183 to intersection of SC Hwy 183 and the Norfolk So. Railroad main line in Greenville and then north of the mainline of the Norfolk So. Railroad to the Spartanburg County line.” I know Westminster is misspelled here but that is what is on their website.
Ed, I live in southern Greenville County, SC not but a couple of miles from the Laurens County line. This is game zone 2. Since I no longer hunt, or fish very much, sitting in a tree waiting on a deer to walk by has never appealed to me, I don’t keep up as much with the rules and regulations. The joy of hunting for me was watching my bird dogs work or listening to a pack of beagles running a rabbit. I don’t intend to sound like I am putting anyone down that enjoys deer hunting. I knew the methods you mentioned were legal for nongame fish such as catfish, for some reason I thought hand grabbing might be illegal. I have a friend that takes his grandson with him and sets out jug hooks for catfish on Clark Hill /Lake Thurmond lake. I tried to leave a reply to Lenora but think I may have messed up. The same weather forecast for here.
I got curious about the etymology of the word Westminster. I learned that the town of London in England was once called Westminster. A minster (not minister) is a large church associated with a monastery presently or in the past. I am assuming that Westminster, South Carolina is either named for the town of Westminster or that some kind of religious organization had a monastery of something similar there.
New potatoes are one of my favorite things from the garden. We like them best cut into french fry size and fried in hot oil. Add a little salt the there is nothing better!
I will never understand those diets that say you can’t eat potatoes! I love them too! When we had a garden before my apartment days, we grew potatoes and I was amazed at how good they are! So fresh! Makes me want some hash browns now…..
We call it “graveling”. New potatoes are just delicious and a great gift of the garden! We are very dry here and just hoping and praying for a good potato harvest. We still do not have beans yet, nor our first ripe tomato. Strange year for sure, but God will meet our needs!
I’m on one of those diets, lol! I am on an Anti Candida Diet. No sugar, no yeast, no gluten, no dairy, no fruit, and no a ton of other things, sigh… I’m doing it to heal my leaky gut; I began in November. I started letting myself have carrots, sweet potatoes, and apples a couple months ago, and I think I am gonna treat myself to some new potatoes the neighbor offered us last night, lol! This isn’t forver, just til I heal up. I’ll say having apples/natural applesauce with no sugar back has changed my life, tho!! whoo-hoo!!
Do you take apple cider vinegar? Candida is yeast. Yeast eats the sugar in apple juice and changes is to acetic acid. When the acetic acid gets strong enough it kills the yeast that produced it. If it kills the yeast that produced it, it can also kill other forms of yeast too. Old Granny Women used to swab a baby’s mouth with diluted apple cider vinegar for thrush. Thrush is a Candida yeast.