Friday, October 2, 2009

One Potato, Two Potato, Sweet Potato

This adventure all started a couple years back as an experiment with the kids.
In the midst of the winter we put 3 toothpicks into a whole sweet potato then placed it onto a glass jar with half the potato immersed in water. Before long there was a sprout coming out the top which soon evolved into a plant that looked much like an ivy.

Now it has become a yearly tradition!
Come spring we plant them in the garden even though you do not hear much about other Mainers growing them.

Viola!


Sweet potato fries, baked, pie....... Love to hear how you cook sweet potatoes!
We had a challenging growing season with all the rain. Most of our red potatoes never sprouted. Despite our loses we were still lucky enough to harvest approximately 130lbs of Yukon Golds and sweet potatoes.

You just never know what you will find in our yard......metal, nails, glass bottles, tons of bones. 200 year old farmhouse, some history has been made here. We dug this up while harvesting potatoes. At best guess we thought it may be the suction device from a milker?


11 comments:

Captain Hook and Lady Crochet said...

LOL...we are always unearthing items as well. It's actually kinda scarey what you might find. Our last find was some glass medicine bottles and a horse shoe.

When I read your title I kept putting corn on the end of it in my head..lol.

Karen Sue said...

yeah, it looks like what my friend used to call inflations, that went on the milkers..when they were past their prime, they became good dog toys, they'd chase them for days and days! Just what kind of yield do you get out of a sweet potato plant? I am only doing a few small raised beds right now and wondering if I can sneak a few potatoes in to the mix.. and you have them all rooted before you plant them??

Paula said...

Hmmm... that's one scary looking apparatus, Kim! *LOL*
Hubby and I both love sweet potatoes; unfortunately this year we didn't have any luck with them. I guess I'll be getting mine at the farmer's market! *Rats*

Anonymous said...

How fun and yummy!

Amy

http://goatpod2.wordpress.com

Country Girl said...

Karen Sue, yes they are rooted before they go into the ground. Potatoes need depth so I am not sure how they'd do in a raised bed. Out of 7 plants we harvested about 3/4 of a bushel.

Don said...

I'm going to do some sweet taters next year!

You should get a metal detector and do some serious searching! I found some old ceramic coated metal dishes and a very large metal thing that somebody buried.

Your basil drying is cool! I wish I knew of it before the frost ruined it all.

YD, sometimes with ♥June and ♥Angel Samantha said...

Nice! I may just give that a try this winter. I love sweet potato fries. I grew up eating a lot of sweet potatoes. My mom used to just steam them whole and we would eat them for snacks or sometimes breakfast.

warren said...

I still like walking around the woods behind my parents' house...lots of interesting things to find! Your kids will remember the weird junk they find now!

June said...

Who knew? Sweet potatoes in Maine! I've never even tried because I do raised beds (trying to rise above the curse of our totally clay soil). But now I will have to devise a way. Sweet potato fries are favorites around here...

Thanks for the inspiration!

Mandie said...

MMM sweet potatoes, yummy! I like them all kinds of ways. Just baked with butter and brown sugar... or sweet potato casserole...mmmm. How fun to find such things around your land. We live near indian mounds and have friends that have found pottery and tools. Very interesting.

Anonymous said...

We love sweet potatoes in our home! When I moved back here from Mississippi a month ago, I brought back about 25 lbs of sweet potatoes from a roadside purveyor down by Hattiesburg, and we have enjoyed eating them ever since.