For the past several weeks I have been sharing information in this column about southern foods. I have shared information about collards and turnips, both of which are common vegetables grown in most southern gardens, and both of which are usually featured menu items for our holiday feasts.

Another vegetable which is enjoyed not only by southerners, but also by those from all over the world, is sweet potatoes. In addition to being a delicious food item, often associated with holiday feasts, sweet potatoes have special importance to North Carolina and are now developing a special importance to Robeson County.

The terms sweet potato and yam are often used interchangeable, but they refer to two very distinctly different vegetables. Yams are members of their own family, yams, and are the predominate vegetable in many underdeveloped countries around the world. They have rough, scaly skins; have a dry, starchy taste; and are very low in Beta Carotene, or Vitamin A. Sweet potatoes are actually members of the morning glory family; have smooth, thin skins; have a moist, sweet taste; and are very high in Beta Carotene.

The name yam is the English adoption of the African word, nyami, which means starchy, edible root. The term sweet potato originated when the orange flesh potatoes were first introduced into the United States as a means of distinguishing them from the more common white fleshed potatoes. Although the terms are generally used interchangeably, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that the label "yam" always be accompanied by "sweet potato."

I often discuss possible column topics with my wife. As a “city girl” with very little knowledge of production agriculture, she often provides some very good suggestions about topics typical readers would like to learn more about. She is a third grade teacher, and she shared that she includes sweet potatoes as she teaches her students about plants, vegetables, and where our foods come from. She indicated that most of her students are surprised to learn that sweet potatoes actually grow under the ground, and are part of the roots of the plants.

As we discussed the various uses for sweet potatoes, I was a little confused when she said you can make even turkeys from sweet potatoes. Then she explained that as class projects for Thanksgiving, her students make turkeys by using sweet potatoes as the body, and attaching heads, tail feathers, and wings from paper cut-outs. I would have never thought of this as one of the uses for sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are both nutritious and economical. One baked sweet potato (3 1/2 ounce serving) provides over 8,800 IU of vitamin A or about twice the recommended daily allowance, yet it contains only 141 calories making it valuable for the weight watcher. This nutritious vegetable provides 42 percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin C, 6 percent of the RDA for calcium, 10 percent of the RDA for iron, and 8 percent of the RDA for thiamine for healthy adults. It is low in sodium and is a good source of fiber and other important vitamins and minerals. A complex carbohydrate food source, it provides beta carotene which may be a factor in reducing the risk of certain cancers.

North Carolina is the leading producer of sweet potatoes in the nation. Each year North Carolina farmers produce over 688 million pounds of sweet potatoes, or about 43% of all the sweet potatoes grown in the United States.

At the current time Robeson County farmers produce only a very small amount of sweet potatoes, less than 25 acres. A few home gardeners will include sweet potatoes in their gardens. The remainder are grown by our commercial vegetable producers, usually one acre or less each, for sale at their roadside stands or at local farmers markets.

But this may change in the near future. George Wooten, owner of W. E. Baily and Company in Chadbourn, has recently purchased the old Daniels Bakery building in Pembroke and needs a lot of additional sweet potatoes to fill his increasing demand for both fresh sweet potatoes and processed sweet potato products.

For the past several months my staff members have been working with Mr. Bailey to help many of our local farmers learn more about sweet potato production as an alternative crop to provide additional income for their farm operations. We have provided tours of the Chadbourn processing and packing facility, tours to sweet potato fields in Columbus County to observe the harvest operations, and educational meetings at our office where Extension Specialists discussed the entire process of growing, managing, harvesting, and curing sweet potatoes.

Until recently sweet potatoes have been considered more of a holiday food item, but now they are usually included on menus throughout the year. In some restaurants you can now even choose between regular French fries and sweet potato fries. The demand and consumption of sweet potatoes is increasing each year. There is no need to wait for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. You can enjoy sweet potatoes throughout the year.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 09/12/07