"Getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter allows you to remember who you are. Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are."

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Sweet!

Gosh!  It's hard to believe that it's the end of the month already!
Has September just flown by for you too? 
We've had a dreary week here at the OK Corral.  A storm sat off the edge of the coast and gave us nothing but grey skies and drizzly days. 

I stepped out in the darkness this morning to see stars.   Yeah! 

Here comes the sun!

And say goodbye to hot weather too.  We're hanging in the 70's this upcoming week!

Sweet!

Speaking of sweet...I've been eyeballing my sweet potatoes. 




This is the first year I've grown them so any advice on harvesting them would be welcome.

I read an article online that said you need to pull them before the frost.  That most farmers here in NC start their harvests at the end of Sept / first of October.

Most of what the article said seemed reasonable of potato harvesting.  Dig on a cloudy, dry day.  Take care not to damage the skin.  Leave the dirt for now.

What I found hard to believe was the curing instructions.  They advise a dark room with 80-85 degree temps and high humidity.

Um...It's fall now.  Where am I going to get that combination?

I said as much to SM who said "See.  Farmers do a lot more than what you might think.  I'm sure they have climate controlled warehouses to do all this."

I just looked at him.

"Makes you want to skip all this and just go to the store and buy them, doesn't it?"  SM grinned at me.

"Hey...You can't tell me that 100 years ago farmers in the South had climate controlled rooms to cure their sweet potatoes.  There's got to be another way."

"Well, don't worry about it too much."  SM said as he walked away.  "You don't even know if you've got anything under those pretty plants.

So I'm throwing it out there.  What works for you?

Or do you just buy them at the store?  @;)


6 comments:

  1. We buy them, but love to hear how this works out for you.

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  2. I have NO idea how to do it. This is our first year for a sweet potato crop, so I'm with you....clueless! Pioneer Preppy did a post on it yesterday I think....I should probably go over there and check it out.

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  3. Farmers here in Massachusetts use greenhouses to cure their sweet potatoes. They water the ground for the humidity and put the potatoes on racks. They can see sun during this, unlike a regular potato. I cure mine in a large clear plastic box in front of my sliding glass door to get the heat and humidity high enough. I leave the top partially opened as they need oxygen to breath during the process. It is better for them to have more air circulation, but its the best I can do.

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  4. We just leave them on the patio for about a week and then store them in a tub in a dark(ish) room. Happy harvest!

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  5. I try to dig them in the morning, then leave them in the sun most of the day. I don't have anywhere to store them under those kinds of conditions, so I spread them out on a tarp in our basement next to windows so they'll be in sunlight a lot. It's not necessary in my opinion to keep them that warm that long. Once you can rub them together without the skin scraping off they're cured. I've cured and stored them that way for years with no problems.

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  6. I just found what looked to be a miniature sweet potato in the pot that had/ has my ornamental sweet potato vines in it. It was somewhat bigger around than my thumb and a bit longer. I never heard of ornamental sweet potato vines having sweet potatoes. The flesh of the little sweet potato was white, but the skin was orange. I am not a fan of the taste of sweet potatoes, so I left it outside for my pestiferous garden raiding squirrel to sample.

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