10 Gallons of Sweet Potatoes!!!

[DawnSuiter]

We did it!
Today we dug up 2 - 5 gallon bucket fulls of sweet potatoes.. some are in excess of 4lbs!! HUGE! It frosted a bit last night & the night before, I didn't know I should pick them before the frost.

Are they ruined? They look great!
Now what do I do with them????

I'm SO happy!!! I might get to actually CAN something this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Greensage45]

By Spring you are going to be sooo Sweet!

What a great harvest!

Ron

 

[obsessed]

So how many plants did you plant? How much space did they take up? What did you feed them? When did you put them in?

I am thinking of doing them next year but space maybe an issue. I am trying to focus on things that grow good in the south that way I don't struggle so much and feel so let down.

Thanks
natalie

 

[DawnSuiter]

That is the space we used.. I have to estimate it to be around 10 feet long by about 5 feet deep. We planted around 10 plants evenly spaced throughout... they took over the entire area, climbed up the fences, covered up that runner of grass.

I USED to plant here only.. but my main staples: bell peppers & corn didn't grow very well here, peppers would get too tall and the corn didn't get enough sun.. so it was well dug over the course of 3 previous years of trying to grow other stuff.

I did NOTHING to the soil really.. but over the last 3 years, when we planted the "other" plants, we would dig a 2' hole, fill it with garden soil, and then mulch everywhere with chicken poop bedding. Before we planted the sweet potatoes, hubby turned it ALL over again and we just planted and let them go.

I purchased Beauregard (?sp) Sweet Potatoes, which are native I think here to the south, so I figured it was a good first choice. I too was looking for something "easy" so I would be more happy with the harvest, we had a bad year for corn & melons, so this late in the year, it's a nice change to have something fresh.

I'm also still growing lettuce, parsnips & carrots in my front gardens, they too are doing really well.

 

[obsessed]

Thanks for the review.

 

[vfem]

Oh my goodness, that is a WONDERFUL harvest! Lets see some of those jumbo veggie!!! I went to the State Fair on Monday and we saw some cool giant fruits and veggies... and we saw TONS of sweet potatoes. They were even selling some native varieties to get people interested in planting.

I saw on potato that was just over 4lbs, and it had a blue ribbon on it You may want to find a fair to enter that sucker in.

I'd love to see pictures of your haul... OH, and let us know about the taste. I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes, but I've tried one or 2 I've liked.. other flavors, not so much.

 

[lesa]

I tried planting a few sweet potatoes (from eyes) in the bucket idea. I didn't get a lot, and they were small. But, they were delicious and I will definitely try again, next year. The irony is that I have planted ornamental sweet potatoes and they get huge- the edible ones were slightly bigger than carrots. Go figure! Congrats on your great harvest! I like to slice mine and pan cook them with olive oil, basil and garlic- you can do the same in the oven on broil... Enjoy!

 

[DawnSuiter]

Very happy with them... although it looks like without some of the mud we only weigh in at 3lbs... well.. still... awesome results for us.

We added sweet potatoes to our diet a couple years ago, other than Thanksgiving of course where I've always eaten my mom's brown sugar/butter/cinnamon w/sweet potatoes from a can. We started with sweet potato fries, but now use them in just about everything.

Our current favorite is one skillet: olive oil, smoked sausage, bell pepper, onion, garlic, cauliflower, corn & sweet potato home fries (small chunks) over white rice.

Also 1/4 sweet potato with regular 3/4 regular potatoes mashed

Sweet potato chips & fries both oven baked

Awesome as home fries sauteed with olive oil & onions for breakfast

AND I'll be trying some sweet potato bread (replacing zucchini)

I think they have to dry before we can use them....
some are chopped in half from the shovel.. don't know if those are useful.. and like I said I waited a little too long maybe because of the frost.. don't know what that'll do to the taste.. but it barely frosted really.. but all the leaves & vines were black & sad looking.

Definitely going to do this again next year.

 

[miron28]

they look great!

 

[4grandbabies]

WOW !
Great harvest.. healthy and delicious!!