As we watched squirrels gleaning sunflower seeds from feeders in our backyard, we dined on 2021s sunshine!

Sweet potatoes are a healthy vegetable.

Thanks to last season’s sun our crop of sweet potatoes produced a bountiful crop, and we ate them until our last one became part of our February 8th dinner. We’ve only been growing sweet potatoes for a few years because we’d heard they need a long southern summer to mature. We now know that’s not true.

We love sweet potatoes. They come in many varieties and color shades from white to purple and the common ones with deep orange flesh. This nutritious plant originated from tropical South America and is now grown in warm regions all over the world.  Sometimes they are called yams, but these two plants are distinctly different. Yams originated in Africa.

Nutritious Vegetable

We love the taste and nutrition of sweet potatoes but here are some other ways we love this plant:

• They are easy to grow. We buy “slips” and plant them in late May or early June.
• The plants and flowers are gorgeous, and slips are sometimes sold as ornamentals.
• They store well. We carefully dig them before the first frost, let them cure for a couple of weeks, and then store them in a cool dark place. They last all winter.

Sweet potatoes are easy. No freezing or canning is needed. We plant, weed a bit, dig, cure, and store and then enjoy eating them all winter. This year we’ve ordered a variety of sweet potato slips from Sand Hill Preservation Center and look forward to a larger harvest.  The company also sells heritage chicken breeds and vegetable seeds.