Post by macmex on Jan 25, 2015 6:29:09 GMT -6
I cannot speak too highly of sweet potatoes, as a practical crop for our warm growing conditions, for their wonderful culinary qualities, and nutrition. There are MANY people out there who are convinced that they don't like sweet potatoes, who probably would, if they tried them, prepared properly. I still remember the candied (canned) side dish, served to us in public schools, in the 60s and 70s. I'm sure that contributed to a growing prejudice against sweet potatoes in our country! My favorite way to eat them is to bake them, in their skins, at 325 F until they are really really soft. Then I eat them skin and all. Even the less sweet varieties, when prepared this way, require no sweetening at all. Usually, if I taste a sweet potato which seems to need sweetening, it's because it hasn't been cooked long enough.
In my opinion the gardening community has two really great sweet potato resources, both for information and for varieties. Sandhill Preservation Center, owned and operated by Glenn and Linda Drowns has a wonderful (really, better put, AMAZING) selection of sweet potato varieties. It is worth buying sweet potatoes from Sandhill Preservation just for the information sheet they include with each order. Glenn and Linda have done some really good experimentation with growing sweet potatoes in adverse ("adverse" for a sweet potato usually means cool or short season) conditions. They share this information freely. I would say that, almost single handedly they have probably been responsible for expanding the sweet potato's growing area in this country. I no longer read many hard copy seed catalogs, for sake of time. But theirs is like a garden book. I anxiously await it every year.
Take a look at their online catalog:
www.sandhillpreservation.com/
I can say "almost single handedly" because Sandhill Preservation Center works closely with Duck Creek Farms. Our own Gary Shaum, owns and operates Duck Creek Farms, here in Oklahoma. Gary and Glenn do a lot of collaboration, freely sharing seed stock and growing information. Both of these companies are so very deserving of our support. We NEED companies like these!
Do take a gander at:
www.duckcreekfarms.com/sweetpotato.shtml
At the bottom of the page are some sweet potato links. Read them! They are fascinating. If you haven't grown, or don't grow sweet potatoes, you might start!
The best seed saver will lose varieties from time to time. This is because we face adverse conditions and circumstances (especially here in Oklahoma). Hence, we need MANY individuals to adopt varieties of crops such as sweet potatoes. We also need companies like these who do such an incredible amount of work to gather, trial and maintain these varieties. So, get a variety or two, at least. Try them. Enjoy them. And, support these companies! I can remember back in the 80s when one was lucky to find over a dozen varieties in seed catalogs. Truly, we are richer today!
In my opinion the gardening community has two really great sweet potato resources, both for information and for varieties. Sandhill Preservation Center, owned and operated by Glenn and Linda Drowns has a wonderful (really, better put, AMAZING) selection of sweet potato varieties. It is worth buying sweet potatoes from Sandhill Preservation just for the information sheet they include with each order. Glenn and Linda have done some really good experimentation with growing sweet potatoes in adverse ("adverse" for a sweet potato usually means cool or short season) conditions. They share this information freely. I would say that, almost single handedly they have probably been responsible for expanding the sweet potato's growing area in this country. I no longer read many hard copy seed catalogs, for sake of time. But theirs is like a garden book. I anxiously await it every year.
Take a look at their online catalog:
www.sandhillpreservation.com/
I can say "almost single handedly" because Sandhill Preservation Center works closely with Duck Creek Farms. Our own Gary Shaum, owns and operates Duck Creek Farms, here in Oklahoma. Gary and Glenn do a lot of collaboration, freely sharing seed stock and growing information. Both of these companies are so very deserving of our support. We NEED companies like these!
Do take a gander at:
www.duckcreekfarms.com/sweetpotato.shtml
At the bottom of the page are some sweet potato links. Read them! They are fascinating. If you haven't grown, or don't grow sweet potatoes, you might start!
The best seed saver will lose varieties from time to time. This is because we face adverse conditions and circumstances (especially here in Oklahoma). Hence, we need MANY individuals to adopt varieties of crops such as sweet potatoes. We also need companies like these who do such an incredible amount of work to gather, trial and maintain these varieties. So, get a variety or two, at least. Try them. Enjoy them. And, support these companies! I can remember back in the 80s when one was lucky to find over a dozen varieties in seed catalogs. Truly, we are richer today!