Growing Sweet Potatoes, Cooking Sweet Potatoes, Medicinal Properties Of Sweet Potatoes

Did you know that sweet potatoes were first domesticated in Central America around 5000 years ago. The sweet potato was also grown in the Polynesian region of the South Pacific before western exploration ever occurred. It has been pointed out that Polynesians had to have visited Central or South America probably thousands of years ago and brought the sweet potatoes back to the Polynesian area. It is interesting to note that the type of sweet potato grown in the Polynesian Islands like the Cook Islands and the Hawaiian Islands was the type of Sweet Potatoes that were started from slips or cuttings and not from sweet potatoes. If they were visiting Central And South America they were probably visiting North America. If so then Columbus did not discover the new world. He was about a thousand years too late.

Huge Amounts Of Sweet Potatoes Are Grown In The American South

In the American deep south the Sweet Potato is still grown today and in huge numbers. I know my Grandparents grew them in N.C. and I have seen them being grown across N.C., S.C. , Georgia, Florida, and Alabama for a number of years. In the mid 1990s I spent some time in central Mississippi and I learned that the Sweet Potato has been grown there for hundreds of years. In the summer months you can drive down the roads of Mississippi and see Sweet Potatoes being grown for miles and miles.

Sweet potatoes thrive in the long, hot summers of the American South but you can raise sweet potatoes anywhere that you have 150 frost free days. Once planted sweet potatoes produce their sweet nutritious roots that have come to be known as sweet potatoes. You will hear them called yams in some parts of the American south. But in reality a yam and a sweet potato are two different things altogether.

In the videos below you can learn how to grow sweet potatoes, how to make sweet potato pie, and how to make sweet potato fries.

How To Make Pecan Sweet Potatoes

For Your Casserole You Will Need

1. Three Cups Well Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2. Two Large Well Beaten Eggs.

3. One Half Cup Margarine Melted.

4. One Half Cup Whole Milk.

5. One Cup White Granulated Sugar.

6. One Teaspoon Vanilla Extract.

7. One Teaspoon Cinnamon.

Mix all of the above ingredients together well and pour them out into a 13" X 9" baking pan and level the contents of the pan out smooth with a large spoon.

For Your Topping You Will Need.

1. One Cup Light Brown Sugar.

2. One Half Cup Margarine.

3. One Fourth Cup Self Rising Flour.

4. One Half Cup Fine Crushed Pecans.

Mix all of the above four ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour the well mixed topping ingredients out on top of the ingredients already in the baking pan and bake in a pre-heated oven set at 350 degrees for foury five minutes. Serve small servings in a bowl with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a delightful treat.

Sweet Potato Casserole

My Grandma and my Mom made these delicious Sweet Potatoes almost every Sunday and they were always delicious. My Grandma called them Sunday Sweet Potatoes. But it was really a sweet potato casserole.

1. Seven Cups Peeled And Well Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2. One Cup White Granulated Sugar.

3. One Half Cup Butter.

4. Two Large Well Beaten Eggs.

5. One Half Cup Whole Milk.

6. One Teaspoon Vanilla.

7. Pinch Of Nutmeg.

Mix all of those ingredients together very well. Once you have everything mixed up together very well pour out into a 13" X 9" well greased baking dish. Mash everything down level with a large cooks spoon. Bake for about forty minutes in a pre-heated 350 degree oven.

Now once you pull the pan of cooked sweet potatoes out of the oven you want to apply a layer of miniature marshmallows over the top of the pan and put it under the broiler of your oven just until the marshmallows melt and turn brown but do not let them burn. Take out of the oven and set aside for about five minutes before you serve them. These are some of the best sweet potatoes you will ever eat.

In a lot of homes around the United States sweet potatoes are only served around the holidays but you really should be serving them throughout the year especially if you know the health benefits of sweet potatoes.

In case you don't know the carotenoids that are found in sweet potatoes help to stabilize blood sugars. The nutrients, vitamins and other things contained in sweet potatoes helps to make cells more responsive to insulin. If you have a diabetic problem and your insulin resistant than you really need to add sweet potatoes to your diet on a regular basis.

Don't confuse sweet potatoes with yams. They aren't even related to each other. Yams are related to lilies and grass while sweet potatoes are related to the morning glory family. About 95 percent of all yams are grown in Africa while most sweet potatoes are grown in the southern United States. Sweet potatoes are heat loving plants and that is why they grow so well in the southern United States.

You Need Sweet Potato Slips To Grow Sweet Potatoes

You need sweet potato slips to grow sweet potatoes. You can quite easily grow your own sweet potato slips from mature sweet potatoes. Purchase some nice large sweet potatoes from the local supermarket. You can plant your sweet potatoes indoors in moist soil. Plant the potatoes about halfway into the soil and keep the soil moist. In a few days you should see slips start to grow from the sweet potatoes. You will want to cut the slips from the mother sweet potato when they are six to eight inches long. Handle them very carefully at this point because they will be tender and fragile.

I bet you didn't know it but you can grow bushels of sweet potatoes from a handful of sweet potato slips. Now comes the tricky part. You'll want to plant your sweet potato slips into the garden when the soil is 68 - 70 degrees. The soil must be warm and all danger of frost must be passed before you plant the sweet potato slips in the garden.

Be Careful How You Plant Your Sweet Potato Slips

Plant the sweet potato slips at least 24 inches apart. The sweet potatoes will need room to spread out and grow. When you plant your sweet potato slips plant them on their sides with about two thirds of the plant under the ground. Your sweet potato plants need plenty of room to grow and develop their sweet potatoes underground.

As soon as the sweet potato slips start to grow put well rotted mulch around each sweet potato slip to keep the weeds and grass away and to keep the moisture in. You'll want to harvest your sweet potatoes after about four months before the first frost. Lay your harvested sweet potatoes out on the ground and allow them to dry out completely before you store them in a cool dark place. And now you know exactly how to grow your own sweet potatoes.

In his 1952 novel, Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison evokes memories of favorite sweet potato dishes. " Yes and we loved them candied, or baked in a cobbler, deep fried in a packet of dough, or roasted with pork and glazed with the well browned fat.

Ingredients Needed.

1. Three Medium Sweet Potatoes which will be about one pound.

2. Two Large Granny Smith Apples.

3. One Half Cup Brown Sugar.

4. One Tablespoon Butter.

5. One Half Teaspoon Ground Cloves.

6. One Fourth Cup Fine Chopped Pecans.

You will want to start by washing and peeling your sweet potatoes. Cut your sweet potatoes up in very thin slices crosswise. Cook your sweet potatoes until just done. I usually steam mine.

Peel your apples and core them. Cut up into small pieces. In a two quart casserole dish combine the apples and the cooked sweet potatoes.

In a small saucepan combine your sugar, butter, water, and cloves and bring to a boil. Stir so everything comes together and then pour in the casserole dish over the apples and sweet potatoes. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes at 350 degrees and in the last ten minutes of cooking time sprinkle with the chopped up pecans.

This is a dish that has been served in the American south for the last couple of hundred years or more. It's important to precook your sliced sweet potatoes for this dish. If you need to put them in a microwave safe dish with a little water and cover the dish with plastic wrap. Cook on high for 3 - 4 minutes and then put your dish together.

In this recipe you have two of my favorite foods. Sweet Potatoes and Granny Smith Apples. I guarantee you that once you ever try these sweet potatoes you'll make them again and again. They really are that good.

1. Six Large Sweet Potatoes peeled and cut into small cubes.

2. Six Granny Smith Apples Peeled, Cored and cut into small pieces.

3. One Cup Raisins.

4. Four Tablespoons Honey.

5. One Half Cup Apple Juice.

6. One Fourth Cup Butter.

7. Two Tablespoons Orange Juice.

Mix all your ingredients together well and be sure to toss well to make sure all your ingredients get well coated. Pour everything out into a two quart casserole dish and cover tightly with tinfoil. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Set out of oven and raise one corner of tinfoil to vent steam for about 10 minutes before you pour into a serving dish and take to the table. This has always been one of my favorite ways to make sweet potatoes.

These sweet potato fries are oh so delicious. I use olive oil, sea salt, black pepper and pumpkin pie spice to make delicious healthy oven fries made out of sweet potatoes which are one of my all time favorite foods. The pumpkin pie spice is the real secret ingredient in this recipe. It makes these oven baked sweet potato fries into something really special. So be sure to try this wonderful recipe as soon as you can.

Ingredients For Your Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

1. Four Large Sweet Potatoes Peeled And Cut Into Fry Size Pieces.

2. Three Tablespoons Olive Oil.

3. One Tablespoon Ground Sea Salt.

4. One Tablespoon Ground Black

5. One Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice.

You want your fries to be about the size of a mans finger. Now here comes how you make your sweet potato fries into the best sweet potato fries you'll ever eat.

You want to peel your sweet potatoes and then cut them into the fry size pieces. Once you have them in the fry size pieces put your sweet potato fries into a plastic container and cover them with crushed ice. Cover them and let them set in the crushed ice and water for an hour. After a hour pour into a colander and take your sweet potato fries out.

Pat them dry with paper towels and put them back into a large bowl. Put all your ingredients into the bowl with the potatoes and toss well to be sure all the sweet potatoes get well coated with the spices and olive oil. You'll find that the olive oil will help the spices to stick to your sweet potato oven fries.

Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees and put your sweet potato fries out on a baking pan. Cook your sweet potato fries for twenty minutes and then turn them over. Bake for twenty more minutes and remove from the oven. Some ovens cook faster than other ovens so keep a close eye on your sweet potato fries while they are cooking.

These fries are really healthy for you and oh so delicious. Give them a try to see what you think. I hope sweet potato fries are in your future real soon.

Sweet potatoes are raised from the sprouts, or slips, that their tubers send out. One sweet potato suspended on toothpicks in a container and half covered with water will produce several sweet potato sprouts. Larger quantities can be grown by placing several potatoes on a bed of sand and cover them with a 2 inch layer of moist sand or soil. The sweet potatoes will produce sprouts at 75 degrees. But you can buy sweet potato slips at your local farm and garden center.

You want to plant your sweet potato slips after any danger of frost has passed. During the first month your sprouts will grow 8-10 inches and they will put on leafs. You will find that sweet potatoes do best in loose sandy soil where all the rocks have been removed. You will want to prepare your soil by digging in lots of fully rotted compost or manure and about 2 pounds of 5-10-5 fertilizer for each 25 foot of row. Push your soil up into foot wide 6 inch high mounds.

You will want to plant your sweet potatoes 15 inches apart in the center of the mound and you need to set them 6 inches into the ground. You will need to water them very well. Again set up your sprinkler or sprinklers and water after the sun has set. Never water when the sun is out.

Sweet potatoes require very little care. You will want to keep the weeds out and your going to need a hoe and some hard work to keep the weeds out. Be careful that you don't damage your sweet potatoes just under the ground when you are chopping out the weeds.

You want to let your sweet potatoes grow until the tops of the plants turn black from the first frost. The sweet potatoes are now ready to be dug up and made into pies, casseroles, and sweet potato fries.

You will want to dig your sweet potatoes very carefully because their skins will bruise very easily. Lay your harvested sweet potatoes out on the ground for a couple of days and then carefully put them into newspaper lined boxes and leave them in a dry warm place for two weeks then store them in a dry cool place as close to 55 degrees as you can get.

You can of course go ahead and peel sweet potatoes and cook them in a large pot. Add sugar and butter to them and freeze them in gallon storage bags. You can use these cooked sweet potatoes for sweet potato pies or sweet potato casseroles.

The Sweet Potato Weevil feeds on the leaves of the sweet potato vine and its larvae tunnel into the sweet potatoes. You need to keep the ground where sweet potatoes are grown clear of any debris. You will need to spray affected plants with methoxychor and be sure to destroy any infested potatoes. Be sure you read the label of the pesticide and follow the directions. Ask at your local garden center if you need to worry about sweet potato weevils in your area.

Keep in mind that you will want to plant your sweet potatoes in loose soil with good drainage. I prepare the place where I plant my sweet potatoes by first digging two foot deep trenches and then I fill the trenches back with good quality dirt that I have mixed with well rotted manure or well rotted compost. I then put topsoil on top of everything so I have mounded up rows to plant my sweet potato vines in. This way I almost always end up with a huge crop of sweet potatoes and so can you.

Have You Ever Been To Tater Day

Ever been to Tater Day. The Town of Benton Kentucky celebrates Tater Day on the first Monday of April each year. In Mississippi each year about 150 farmers grow 8200 acres of Sweet Potatoes valued at 19 million dollars. The National Sweet Potato Festival is held each year in Vardaman Mississippi which calls it's self the Sweet Potato Capital Of The World. The festival is held each year the first week of November each year. I've been to it and if you ever get a chance to go be sure to try the thin cut sweet potato fries they serve there. They are truly some of the best sweet potato fries I've ever had. Oh man they are good.

Did you know that sweet potatoes are really the perfect food. And here is why.

18 Reasons Why Sweet Potatoes Are A Super Food

1. Sweet potatoes are high in fiber, fat free, low in sodium, and low in carbohydrates.

2. The sweet potato is slow to digest so it causes a slow and steady rise in blood sugars.

3. Just 4 ounces of cooked sweet potato contains 3.4 grams of fiber and lots of other great nutrients. If your a diabetic sweet potatoes are an excellent food choice.

4. If you smoke you should eat a lot of Vitamin A rich fruits or vegetables like the sweet potato.

5. Sweet Potatoes are a great antioxidant and anti inflammatory food. They are also great in stabilizing blood sugar levels and they lower insulin resistance.

6. The sweet potato is known as a great food for diabetics. The sweet potato helps to stabilize blood sugars though you should be careful with what you are adding to the sweet potato before you eat it. I like them with just a little butter.

7. The sweet potato has strong anti oxidant benefits and they are a wonderful source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Magnesium, and Vitamin B6. Most people know the health benefits of Vitamin C like warding off colds and flues but most people don't know that Vitamin C is great for your teeth and it may even help to prevent some forms of cancer.

8. The Vitamin B6 that they contain is really healthy for you especially if you are in danger of heart disease. Vitamin B6 helps to reduce the homocysteine levels in your body. Homocysteine has been linked to degenerative diseases in the human body and this can help to prevent heart disease.

9. Sweet potatoes are an important source of iron. Iron plays an important part in our bodies. Iron plays an important role in red and white blood cell development. iron also improves your resistance to stress and helps your body to break down proteins.

10. Sweet potatoes are an important source of magnesium. Magnesium helps to relieve stress and keep the body healthy. So yes you should be eating lots of sweet potatoes.

11. Did you know that sweet potatoes can help to prevent heart disease. Sweet potatoes are high in potassium and they can help to prevent strokes and heart attacks.

12. They are filled with all kinds of nutrients and anti oxidants and they can boost the bodies immunity system and help to make you well.

13. Sweet Potatoes are rich in anti oxidants and these work in the body to prevent inflammatory problems like cancer, asthma, arthritis, gout, and etc. Sweet potatoes are one of the best sources of anti oxidants.

14. Carbohydrates that are good for people with diabetics are found in sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are fibrous root vegetables that can help to regulate blood sugar levels and help to prevent things like insulin resistance.

15. Sweet potatoes are packed with nutrients and vitamins that can help to boost the bodies immune system. Sweet potatoes are excellent for alleviating muscle cramps and spasms.

16. Sweet potatoes are excellent to treat stress related symptoms. You may not know it but your body uses a lot of potassium and other minerals when it is under a lot of stress.

17. In case you don't know sweet potatoes are ranked number 1 of all vegetables so yes you should be growing and eating sweet potatoes as often as possible.

18. Sweet potatoes because of their high fiber content are really good for your digestive tract. It is believed that they may even prevent colon cancer so yes you should eat sweet potatoes as often as possible including the skins.

I guess you could say that the sweet potato is really the perfect food and sweet potatoes should really be in your future soon. You should grow and eat some sweet potatoes real soon.

I hope you enjoyed this Hub Page on Sweet Potatoes and I want to thank you for taking the time to read this Hub Page on Sweet Potatoes. Thank You for your time.