One Potato, Two Potato

My oldest daughter, Allie, loves sweet potatoes. Ever since she was a kid they were pretty much the only vegetable we could get her to eat. We didn’t mind; sweet potatoes were good for her, loaded with vitamin A and beta-carotene. After tasting some locally grown sweet potatoes, we decided to grow our own in our back yard plot.  The local potatoes we tried were sweeter, more tender, and moister than the grocery store potatoes.  We knew it would be risky because sweet potatoes are not native to our climate and prefer hot, dry weather.  Most commercial production is in North Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana.

Sweet potatoes are grown from slips--a portion of the stem with a bit of root attached. We ordered our slips from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. The slips arrived in early spring and were planted directly into the garden under our makeshift hoop houses; 10 foot sections of PVC piping covered with plastic sheets. Sweet potatoes, typically grown in the south, love hot, dry weather and the hoop house helps to capture the sun’s rays and warm the soil. After a slow start from the cold wet spring, they began to show more signs of life in July and by August they took over everything.

Last weekend, following a summer of watering and training the vines, we decided it was time to see what was lying beneath the mass of vines and straw mulch.  After digging and searching, we finally pulled up one sweet potato. I couldn’t believe it; after an additional 20 minutes we found one more sweet potato. Two sweet potatoes! That was it.  We gave up a lot of space and time for two lousy potatoes but that’s the chance you take on a new crop – especially one not native to our climate.

Although we harvested two sweet potatoes, we are still proud of our crop. Just like the time we invest in our garden, Big Bowl’s time at Heritage Prairie Farm has been a home run. Culturally, the seed-to-table program has been the start of an incredible journey for Big Bowl and Heritage.  As the season winds down, we continue to bring in as much produce as we can before the first frost, and just like our sweet potatoes we’ll carry on harvesting more and more each year.