Sweet ... !

... Potatoes that is. Yesterday we began to harvest some of our sweet potatoes. It was a first for us. We had never even tried to grow sweet potatoes before, but this past spring, after all danger of frost had passed we plant a row. The vines were lovely and they really didn't need any care. We mulched them and then let them go, and they grew and grew some more. The vines are beginning to die down and we just thought we should dig up a few to see what has been going on underground.

We were pleasantly surprised with a nice yield of sweet potatoes from just a couple of plants. Some of them were kind of twisted. If you use your imagination, you might think one of the potatoes resembled the letter S. Some were quite small but most were large and would make a nice meal.

We had one of them for dinner last night. It was very large and perfect for two. The taste--very good.

The easiest way to cook them is to wrap each washed sweet potato in foil and place them in a 350 degree oven on a baking sheet for about an hour or until they "give" when pressed. We usually serve them with butter and sometimes brown sugar and cinnamon. You can substitute honey or agave nectar and eat them for dessert if you prefer. We often eat sweet potatoes as a side dish with beef, chicken and pork. I like sweet potatoes with them all.

Eating sweet potatoes is a "win-win" since they are filled with vitamins and minerals, especially Vitamin A, and they taste good, too. We especially loved the ones from our garden.

Next we will probably make sweet potato fries and my husband has been hinting around for sweet potato pie which is a southern favorite.

I don't know what our yield will be since most of ours are still in the ground, but I do know they have been easy to grow and I am enjoying them tremendously.