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Sweet potatoes are a family favorite in our house. I have such fond memories of my father when I was a girl and walking into his workshop and he would put sweet potatoes into the oven that he kept his welding rods in to slowly bake. The smell of baking sweet potatoes even today always make me think of him. He told stories about when he was a young boy taking baked sweet potatoes to school in his lunchbox during the Great Depression. I guess that crop got many southerners through the hard times.
For me my sweet potato crop started in January with 2 left over sweet potatoes from the year before. Toothpicks were stuck in the sides and they went into Mason jars in the sunny kitchen window. That was their home until about April as they put out sprouts and grew vines.
About mid April I started rooting those sprouts in water preparing to set them into beds the first of May when the chance of frost had passed. We had already prepared wire rings with a lining of black plastic to gather heat and then filled the rings with rich soil and compost.
By July they had filled in the rings and ran out into the area underneath the two small pear trees I had started last year. We watered occasionally when Mother Nature failed to drop enough rain and other than that we just watched them grow. No fertilizer was added because there was plenty of compost already in the soil in the rings. And the temperatures turned hot and they loved it.
About two weeks ago we dug the potatoes composting all the vines.
And out of those two rings we harvested over 60 pounds of sweet potatoes. The rings were dismantled and the soil spread out to enrich the soil under the pear trees.
We allowed them to sit on a tarp in the shed for a few days for the skins to harden and dry out. They are now sitting in a corner of the dining room in banana boxes continuing to dry out and season. I check them often to make sure there are no soft ones or rotten spots.
Once I am secure in the fact that they are seasoned I will move them under the bed in the guest bedroom. It is dark under there and cool because I keep the heat turned down in there because there is rarely any one sleeping in there.
The really small ones or the nicked ones I am saving and will make sweet potato bark with later in the dehydrator. I’ll do a post later to show you how. For now that is one more crop down as we head toward winter.
Blessings from The Holler
The Canned Quilter
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2022-09-13 09:54:00
Karl Hoffman is a distinguished agriculturalist with over four decades of experience in sustainable farming practices. He holds a Ph.D. in Agronomy from Cornell University and has made significant contributions as a professor at Iowa State University. Hoffman’s groundbreaking research on integrated pest management and soil health has revolutionized modern agriculture. As a respected farm journalist, his column “Field Notes with Karl Hoffman” and his blog “The Modern Farmer” provide insightful, practical advice to a global audience. Hoffman’s work with the USDA and the United Nations FAO has enhanced food security worldwide. His awards include the USDA’s Distinguished Service Award and the World Food Prize, reflecting his profound impact on agriculture and sustainability.
