Ugliest sweet taters I ever saw

[Collector]

I have never tasted a sweet potatoe or a yam, Is that weird?

 

[hoodat]

Many people consider them holiday fare but I eat them at least once a week. They are high in fiber, vitamins and minerals.

 

[digitS']

I have never tasted a sweet potatoe or a yam, Is that weird?

Yes. Unless you don't like winter squash/carrots/that sort of thing.

Candied sweet potatoes are just about the easiest holiday side dish imaginable. And, remember Steve's Law of Cooking: Use the simplest recipe first. If something goes wrong, it will be easier to explain.

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Peel and cut sweet potatoes in slices about 1/2 inch thick.

Lay in a shallow, buttered casserole dish and add a little water. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Remove foil and continue baking for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

All of this can be done early and the casserole microwaved just before serving. Optional: Top with miniature marshmallows and brown under broiler for about 4 minutes.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

I've never cared for candied sweet potatos. They're sweet enough as is. I prefer them either steamed or baked with just butter salt and pepper on them. That can be varied with sour cream if you prefer.

 

[thistlebloom]

I won't be trying them again up here. Six weeks potted and growing in the greenhouse plus a full season out in garden - didn't result in more than 2 servings from each plant . . .

Maybe I'll try the Georgia Jets again in 2011 .

Steve

Well I'm officially discouraged about growing s/p here. If digits can't get them to turn out satisfactoraly (how is that spelled?) I probably don't have a snowballs chance. Steve, I assume your growing season is a tad longer than mine? But maybe I'll give it another go, it might be more baby sitting than I have reasonable time for. :/ hmmm....

 

[HLAC]

I had a sweet potato I bought at walmart sprout on me so i saved it for planting... but I forgot about it until July. I planted about 6 slips from it and got 5 grocery bags full of sweet potatoes from them. (dug it up in November) I was really surprised. It was the first time I'd tried to plant them.

We have beautiful rich, black dirt here but I had heard that sweet potatoes don't like rich soil. (??)
But whatever kind of sweet potato that was, it produced well in a relatively short amount of time and it seemed to like the good dirt.

My mom has given me some of the purple Japanese sweet potatoes to try to grow. They're purple all the way through, even when cooked and really sweet. It will be an interesting experiment.

 

[digitS']

Thistlebloom, I didn't actually grow the Georgia Jets years ago. That was Dad.

He wanted to try sweet potatoes and I found the earliest type. Or, what the catalogs called the earliest type. Ridgerunner has also recommended Georgia Jets, Beauregard, or O'Henry for a New Hampshire gardener on TEG. New Hampshire can't be a whole lot different than here - must be about the same, miserable, glacial soil. Did I say "miserable?"


I thought that the Georgia Jets did real good but Dad grew up along the Rio Grande and wasn't at all impressed with the crop. I mean, they at least amounted to something . . .

It seems that the warm soil is an issue. Or, in our part of the world the cold soil. Perhaps, red or black plastic between the plants would help . . . don't know.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Thats what I was thinking, early start indoors, black plastic to heat the soil, then pop a row tunnel over the whole mess to keep them warm.
Kudos to HLAC! Thats fantastic, what fun to just stick something in the ground and get such a great harvest.

 

[hoodat]

Certain plants don't do well in all soils and climates. It's always nice to experiment but sweet potatos take up so much room they're hardly worth growing if you can't get a decent crop.

 

[dragonlaurel]

One of my friends used to grow sweet potatoes in a whiskey barrel on the patio. It was easier to harvest too. The vines were gorgeous so she let them trail out onto the patio some.

My favorite way of eating them is baked them them add some butter, a little honey and a touch of cinnamon.