Back in the spring, I was still getting food from the co-op. I stopped when the garden began producing but I had gotten some sweet potatoes. Everything from the co-op was organic. Some of the sweet potatoes sprouted so I cut them up and planted the slips. It was towards the end of April or the first of May and the garden was already full so I had to stick them here and there. I put four slips in one section, two in another spot and two in front of the second gate that we never used but I had not planted in front of the gate.
About a month ago when Vince tilled up the peas, I told him it was ok to go ahead and pull up the sweet potato vines because they hadn’t made any potatoes. There were tons of vines! The vines from the remaining four slips had entangled themselves with the watermelon vines and it was a huge mess in that corner of the garden. Yesterday I took the shovel and chopped all the vines and we hauled them out. I decided to dig to make sure there were no sweet potatoes. Oh, my! There were so many sweet potatoes!
We filled a five gallon bucket and thought we were done. When Vince began tilling in that area, he kept running over more potatoes so he stopped and dug more and dug up about another five gallon bucket of sweet potatoes.
Vince, who has never had much farm life, couldn’t get over the color of them, and how much different they looked from store bought sweet potatoes. For dinner, I baked a big one and we split it. He kept saying it was the best sweet potato he’s ever had. He’s so easily pleased! 🙂
I was pretty excited to get that many sweet potatoes from “free” discards, and especially when I thought I wasn’t going to get anything from those slips. I see a sweet potato pie in my immediate future. 🙂
karylsquilts says
now theres a ‘new’ color for us quilters, sweet potatoe !
Diana W. says
What a great surprise! I love sweet potatoes.
Regina says
🙂 i planted regular potatoes for the first time this year – and had a similar surprise! Mine were teeny teeny tiny (about the size of grape tomatoes) but tasty!
Marilyn Smith says
Oh my, how you will enjoy those. I bet they are sure yummy…drowning in butter!
Got the freshest pasilla chilie peppers this am at the Mexican market – they look as if they were just picked yesterday. Guess what we are having for dinner! Feel free to join us!
Helen B. Ellen says
I love it when you get those pleasant surprises. Sweet potatoes are so delicious! Enjoy them!
Denise :) says
Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite things to grow — they’re so easy and generous!! Enjoy! 🙂
Terri says
You can do the same with the regular potatoes, and the sprout doesn’t even need much of the potatoe to start. We planted the peelings and got potatoes.
Hugs
carolyn says
I love it! I ‘stole’ 2 sprouting sw Potatoes from my DD when I was driving the Grandteen. I haven’t dug mine up yet, but need too soon. It’s a little wet out there TG.
Shirley Albertson Owens (sao) says
I am having fun just HEARING about your garden….I love sweet potatoes too!
sao in Midlothian, VA
Lynne in Hawaii says
Yum! Looking forward to the sweet potato pie receipe. We love sweet potatoes with maple butter on them or Bob’s sweet potatoe surprise. Towel please for the keyboard!
Bon says
I love sweet potatoes. And they are so good for you. Had sweet potato pie many years ago and loved it.
Vivian Oaks says
Yummy!!! LOVE sweet potatoes!! But now it’s just hubby & me, and he wouldn’t eat one if you paid him! (Good!! More for me!!!) 🙂