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Mostly sunny skies. High 66F. Winds light and variable..
Mainly clear skies. Low 48F. Winds light and variable.
Autumn has always been a special time for me. Growing up on a small Randolph County farm in North Carolina, the term ‘fall harvest’ had delicious meanings. It was a busy but fulfilling time when crops of various types were giving their payoff. Delicious food crops, such as crowder peas, white potatoes, molasses, honey, pumpkins, apples, persimmons and winter squash were harvested or collected for the dinner table and winter storage. The work pace was more relaxed and calming as well as rewarding.
Wintertime would not be complete at mealtime for me without sweetpotatoes. These sweet roots thrive in hot, dry southern summers. After growing for over 100 days, sweetpotatoes are harvested in October or at the first frost; sweetpotatoes, properly cured, can be stored for months for year-round eating. The process I remember on our small farm was labor intensive but not stressful. My dad would use a turning plow on each row of potatoes to turn them out to the top of the ground. My brother and I would scramble along the row and scrape them out of the soil with a four-tined long handled potato digger. We would put them in bushel baskets for curing for 7-10 days at 80-85°F in a tobacco barn or near a wood stove. Curing helps convert potato starch into sugars for sweetness and also helps heal any nicks or scratches on the potato skin to ensure storage. Storage is best for months at 58ºF in a dark place.
Botanically speaking, the sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas, is a close relative of the morning glory vine. In fact, if you ever get to see a sweetpotato plant bloom, it is a bloom much like a morning glory, with a trumpet shaped white bloom with a pale lavender throat. The national sweetpotato Commission has adopted the approved spelling for sweetpotato into one word to differentiate it from other potatoes like yams.
Christopher Columbus discovered them being grown by Caribbean Indians and he took some back to Europe and then other sailors took them to the eastern Pacific. Today, many folks often grow them as houseplants because they are easy to grow. Just put the narrow end of a root down in a glass of water and let it sprout. The sprouts will begin to vine and make a great trailing, attractive foliage plant. Also, it makes a fun experiment for kids to learn about plant life.
It has become a tradition for many Americans to eat some form of recipe for sweetpotatoes on Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays. What other food, much less a root, can you eat baked, boiled, fried, broiled, canned or frozen? With this many ways of preparation and their innate sweetness, they appeal to almost everyone.
Store-bought sweetpotatoes are already cured, so they are ready to eat them any way you like. Boil them, skin them and mash them with butter and a little cinnamon or brown sugar. Deep fat fry them like French fries; bake them in a pan in their skin with a little butter to keep them moist; make a pie, or charcoal broil them in aluminum foil. A favorite way of mine is to boil them, skin them and slice them into half inch thick slabs and fry them in butter in a skillet. But I think they are best baked in their skin for an hour in the oven at 400 degrees, then cut open and garnished with some butter.
Sweetpotatoes are high in vitamin A (beta carotene) and fiber. One cup contains about 65% of your daily vitamin C and less than 10% of both iron and Calcium. Being a root crop, it is also loaded with 10 other natural minerals and generous dietary fiber.
Sampson and Nash counties and counties along I-95 highway in North Carolina grow almost three-fourths the production for the state, which is almost twice as much as the nearest competitor state, California. Louisiana and Mississippi grow about half the 43,000 acres in North Carolina.
If you want to try growing your own varieties for eating next spring, follow a few simple rules. Always plant in well-drained soil with sandy sites preferable in the full sun. Sweetpotatoes are started from plants called “slips” in early spring. Transplant the slips as soon as the soil warms up after the last spring frost to allow the maximal warm weather growing period. Set the plants 12 to 18 inches apart, preferably on a wide, raised ridge about 8 inches high. A ridge not only dries better in the spring, but also warms earlier than an unridged area. They will grow in sandy loam or poor soil with good moisture but not soggy.
For dozens of creative and unusual recipes such as “White pizza with sweetpotatoes, peaches and arugula” go to www.ncsweetpotoes.com and enjoy!
Gwyn Riddick is a North Carolina Certified Plantsman and former owner of Riddick Greenhouses & Nursery. He is a Fellow of the Natural Resources Leadership Institute (NCSU). If you have gardening questions, send them to Gwyn Riddick at The High Point Enterprise, 213 Woodbine St., High Point, N.C. 27260, or email gwynriddick@gmail.com.
Gwyn Riddick is a North Carolina Certified Plantsman and former owner of Riddick Greenhouses & Nursery. He is a Fellow of the Natural Resources Leadership Institute (NCSU). If you have gardening questions, send them to Gwyn Riddick at The High Point Enterprise, 213 Woodbine St., High Point, N.C. 27260, or email gwynriddick@gmail.com.
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