Sweetpotato-- It's Only One Word!
Sweetpotatoes tell stories of rural Southern history from enslaved people right up today. There’s a little story about ‘the poorest family in the US’ lower down.
But first, some odd and interesting facts about the orange root. Over this week, we’ll eat 50 million pounds, I feel like we ought to know sweetpotatoes virtues — and quirks.
Sweetpotato Is One Word
Your google and auto-editing software, and even cans and grocery stores, spell it as two words. They are all wrong! Grammar police friends, please help!
There is an international petition to get this ironed out! Sign the Sweetpotato Is One Word Petition here.
Sweetpotato VS Yams: Two Different Plants Confused in USA
Confusion probably dates back to the 1800s when Europeans saw these huge rhizomes being farmed in Africa. Languages collided, and Europeans called these things yams. Enslaved Africans probably took up the name when they had to eat sweetpotatoes in the Americas.
But even into the 60s, sweetpotatoes, still Southern poverty food, were not widely eaten outside the South. So farmers and marketers got together to rename them, to sell them. That’s how the two foods got mixed up.
Sweetpotatoes are true roots. They are usually thick and blocky-shaped. And orangish in color. They grow more quickly. They are in the same family as Morning Glory Vines. They originated in Central America.
Yams are not roots but thick, underground stems. Usually more cylindrical, hefty, and yellow or whitish. They are a family originated in Africa and Asia but were primarily grown as animal food. (The photo thumbnail for this post is probably a yam.)
North Carolina, Louisiana, and South Carolina Grow the Most
North Carolina’s Official Vegetable is…Sweetpotato. In South Carolina, McCall Farms cans and ships sweetpotatoes all over the US but they label them as yams.
Different Colors, Different Taste
You can easily buy and grow a dozen different varieties of sweetpotato. The most popular include Carolina bred types like ‘Cherokee’—sweetpotato developed by my mentor, the late Dr. Roy Ogle of Clemson. Read about him and his recommendations for home seed saving in my book Deep Rooted Wisdom.
Varieties range from yellow to red. But we all love novelty, so every year, when I go to my favorite sweetpotato farm (Gallop Farms, Riversbridge Road, Ehrhardt, SC), I get a case of these two rare ones:
Finger and Purple Sweetpotatoes
Both cook well as a savory side. Slender fingerlings add elegance to any plate. Sweet purple ones stir fry beautifully with white turnip root, carrots, or orange beets. But purple ones make delicious pudding, pie, or ice cream.
Astronauts Love Sweetpotato
In the movie The Martian, Matt Damon got one thing totally wrong: He should have grown sweetpotatoes, not white potatoes. I bet the white potato farmers bought movie producers lots of expensive presents to win out for that scene.
NASA loves sweetpotatoes as potential food for astronauts, so they sponsor and monitor ongoing research into varied ways of growing. Sweetpotato plants grow more easily than white ones in more climates— including containers in space, are healthier, and you can eat the leaves.
An American Food
But not a native food in the sense that we talk about native plants today. Researchers believe the plant originated between the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico and the Orinoca River in Venezuela. It’s a Central American plant.
Plants that people like to eat get carried around the globe. That’s nothing new. Sweetpotatoes were carried north into what’s now the U.S. way before the time Desoto arrived in Florida and the Carolinas in the mid-1500s; it was here as a food crop.
Ever since Americans and Africans arrived, they’ve been hardship food for poor Southerners-- but a beloved one. My friend Pat told me this:
“My friend Bonnie’s family was deemed ‘the poorest family in the United States’ in the ‘60s. (In the early days of a campaign dubbed ‘the war on poverty.) She lived in a shack on the corner of a sweetpotato farm in North Carolina. The only store-bought clothes she ever got was one pair of socks at Christmas. She was so poor that President Kennedy was scheduled to visit her family, but he got shot before the set date, so LBJ came instead. The farmer let Bonnie come back throughout her life to glean sweetpotatoes. I went with her once, and we filled up both our cars with sweetpotatoes. I made bread, casserole, cobbler; I froze them and puréed them, and to this day, none of my children will touch a sweet potato.”
Here’s a video from Gallup Sweetpotato farm. Turn up the volume….
Sorry, Mr. Potato Head, Miss Sweetpotato Wins the Healthy Crown
In calories, carbs, fat, protein, and fiber, the two foods almost match— though sweetpotato come in a bit lower. But in Vitamin B6, A, C, and beta-carotene, sweetpotatoes win out. White potatoes, however, have higher protein, which makes you feel full for longer.
Grinning Like a Possum Eating a Sweetpotato
That old Southern saying means, ‘That person is very obviously proud of himself - or guilty as sin!’ And boy, am I. Yesterday, I got this message, which lets me know that Southern culture and my stories can be meaningful and appreciated all over the country.
The Best Sweetpotato Casserole
My friend Carl Van Staalduinen, a fourth-generation bulb farmer in North Carolina, says it’s the best. He’s been fairly trustworthy— over the 30 years and hundreds of thousands of bulbs he sent me, I can tell you that Dutch folks speak plain and true.
His Mother shared this recipe, given to her by sweetpotato farmer Bill Mallory of North Carolina.
I love sweet potatoes!
Loved this! Thanks