By Mavis Butterfield on - 16 Comments
I like produce. I like to grow it. I like to eat it. I like to create recipes with it. I’m also kind of a nerd and like to get to know my produce. I like learning new or fun tidbits of info about the produce I’m growing/eating/baking. If you’re a weirdo like me then buckle up for this new series as I dive into a plethora of produce facts and share them with you.
1. America has been growing the most sweet potatoes since WWII. About 2.5 billion pounds of sweet potatoes are produced each year in the US alone! 260 billion pounds are produced globally!
2. By the end of the war, industrialization of farming and the rise of processed foods left sweet potatoes in the dust. U.S. production dropped by a billion pounds within two years after the war and it bottomed out in 1980, with less than 1 billion pounds total, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sweet potatoes were on their way out, until a recent surge.
Recipe for Heirloom Sweet Potato Casserole
3. Sweet potatoes are cheap and really easy to grow, so they become an easy staple to ward off hunger when funds are scarce. Plus, sweet potatoes satisfied a sweet tooth at a discount for Americans strapped for sugar.
4. The sweet potato is the 6th principal world food crop, and approximately 90% of the world’s crop is grown in Asia.
Recipe for Crock Pot Vegan Sweet Potato and Black Bean Soup
5. American’s obsession with diets, namely the South Beach diet, Paleo diet or Atkins diet helped refuel the sweet potato craze. Since those diets were so restrictive, a sweet potato became an allowed sweet treat. Even TV personalities like Dr. Oz highlighted the magic of the vegetable.
6. In 2000, Americans ate about 4 pounds of sweet potatoes per person. Today, it’s nearly double that, at 7.5 pounds per person.
Recipe for Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad with Raisins and Walnuts
7. Despite a physical similarity and a frequent confusion with their names, yams and sweet potatoes are not even distantly related. They are in two different botanical families. Yams are actually related to grasses and lilies
8. Sweet potatoes are actually flowers! They are actually part of the same genus as the morning glory flower, and the flower that blooms from the sweet potato plant looks much like a morning glory.
How to Dehydrate Sweet Potatoes
9. Sweet potatoes come in many different colors like orange, white, yellow, red and purple. The taste, texture, flavor, and nutritional content differs among the varieties. Orange sweet potatoes are the sweetest of them all.
10. Despite its “sweet” label, sweet potatoes can be eaten by diabetics because of their low glycemic index; meaning, eating a sweet potato does not cause a sudden spike in blood sugar levels.
Recipe for Slow Cooker Sweet Potatoes
Had you heard any of those fun facts before? Do you have any of your own to add? Is there a particular produce item you want to know more about? I take requests!
Grow on,
~ Mavis
Pro Tip: To get really sweet sweet potatoes, it’s best to let them cure before eating. Just dig them up, leave them to sit on top of the dirt {keeping them nice and dry} for a week or so. Then, brush off the dirt and store.
To cure, lay them out on newspaper in a cool, humid, dark, and well-ventilated place. Let them sit there for about 2 weeks, that will give their skin a chance to toughen up for storage. Store in a cool, dark, room temperature place {basem*nt, cellar, etc.} some people even wrap their sweet potatoes individually in newspaper and store them in boxes. The key is to avoid chilling the sweet potatoes. The longer they sit, the sweet they get.
Recipe for Sweet Potato Fries
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