Farm Dreams

Homesteading, Organic Gardening, How to Farm, Preparedness, Self-Reliance

Giving It Up (a copy of Sweet Potato Power) For Your Love...

...of storage roots

According to Tatorman George, sweetpotatoes aren't tubers, yams, or even potatoes; they are storage roots- in a class by themselves and part of the morning glory family.

George... tatorman.com

Sweetpotatoes are grown from vine cuttings or slips- shoots sprouted from a mature sweetpotato. The planting of slips, in our layered garden beds, involved forming a raised nest, of sorts- hay pulled together from the surrounding bed. In the center, of each nest, a hole was dug down to hard ground where a cushion of hay was placed; the hole was then filled with handfuls of Robyn's Dirt. After slip placement, the fresh dirt was covered with more hay.
This year, I have "nested" slips from George, Sow True Seeds, a neighbor, and a few I grew.

With 70 slips in the ground, I'm hoping to be, at least, as burdened with sweetpotatoes as is this woman:

basket of sweetpotatoes Jamaica

rainydaydreamco

Since a bountiful harvest is potentially possible (!), I am collecting recipes and other sweetpotato related resources: how-to preserve, alternative uses, ideal utensil (peelers, fryers...), etc.

ALERT: GIVEAWAY!

I'm tickled about the book Sweet Potato Power: Smart Carbs; Paleo and Personalized by Ashley Tudor and I will be ordering a copy soon. As an incentive for sharing your favored use of sweetpotatoes, I will place you in the running to win one for yourself (outside U.S. winner will receive Kindle copy)!

Simply leave a sweetpotato related comment ... add links freely!
You may share as many uses as you like and I will enter your name into the drawing for up to 4 chances (to win).
When 70 chances (one for each slip) have been entered a winner will be randomly determined.

Sampling:
Sweetpotato Planks

1. Slice sweetpotato lengthwise into 1/4" planks 2. Coat with fat of choice, S&P 3. Place on grill, low heat, flip at least once

Sweetpotato Fries Soap... ajsweetsoap

This sampling would count as 2 chances to win...

All right... the sampling counts- only 68 chances to go!

Luck 2U!

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Comment by Daisy on May 31, 2012 at 8:07am: I'm so happy to see this post! I absolutely love sweet potatoes. My favorite thing about them, besides being very easy to grow, is that I can store them in a basket from the time I did them in the fall all the way until the next summer. Usually around April the potatoes in the basket will begin to sprout. It doesn't matter because you can still eat the potato but the benefit is that you just pull off those sprouts and there are your new sweet potato plants for the current growing year!

Our favorite way to eat them is simply to bake them. Wash potato and pat dry. Wrap in aluminum foil and put in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. Sometimes they drip so if you haven't put them in a pan, set a baking sheet on the rack underneath them. After 20 minutes or so I poke them with a fork to help the cooking. Once done we top them with butter and a drizzle of honey. YUM!

Comment by Be Fatisfied on May 31, 2012 at 9:21am: Thanks for sharing your slip sprouting experience... another reason to just "let it be". You're entered X 2 for the giveaway! Good Luck!