Sweet potatoes
are American natives.
Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batata) are much more versatile than seasonal novelties for a marshmallow-topped Thanksgiving side dish. Whether baked, mashed, fried or baked into pies, these bright orange or pale cream tubers are growing in popularity -- sweet potato consumption in the United States increased 35 percent between 2000 and 2010. While growers develop new varieties to meet commercial demand, old-fashioned, tried-and-true sweet potato varieties produce well in the home garden, if given the right conditions.
History
The New World held hundreds of new species.
Historians give credit to Christopher Columbus for carrying the sweet potato to the western world, but sweet potatoes didn't rise in popularity in northern climates until much later -- northern European climates were too chilly for the semi-tropical plant. Spanish adventurers introduced sweet potatoes to the warmer climates of India and other areas of the Near East, and the sweet potato spread into China, reaching Japan in the 1700s, where farmers quickly developed their own varieties. It became so popular, in fact, that many people of the era believed sweet potatoes to be Asian natives. In North America, meanwhile, native tribes and settlers quietly grew sweet potatoes as staples.
American Heirlooms
Not only are these vegetables tasty, but high in beta carotene, iron, vitamin B-6 and vitamin C.
Don't confuse Amish Bush Porto Rico with the popular standard Porto Rico or the later-maturing Porto Rico Bush. Amish Bush Porto Rico is a cut-leaf, early-ripening heirloom that doesn't vine as strongly as other sweet potatoes but is not as compact as Porto Rico Bush. The plentiful tubers have pink skin and orange interiors. Amish Red also has cut leaves but has a well-mannered, bushy growth habit and produces deep pink tubers with bright orange flesh mid-season. Frazier White, like most sweet potatoes, spreads its standard-leafed vines, but the white-skinned, white-fleshed tubers are uniform, abundant and have excellent flavor.
Purple Heirlooms
Not every sweet potato produces orange or cream-colored flesh. Old-fashioned purple varieties are visually striking, but the earliest cultivars were rather tough and unappealing. One vining heirloom variety, simply named Purple, outlasted its stigma to become a colorful favorite. It ripens early, usually within 90 days, and is a strong plant with above-average yields. If you leave the purple skin intact when you cook the tubers, the interior keeps its vivid color. Be patient when growing this variety -- it is a slow starter.
Asian Heirlooms
Sweet potatoes are popular in Asian cuisine.
Asian cultures preferred their sweet potatoes firm, with relatively dry flesh, and old-fashioned Asian varieties often take their regional names. Japanese is a vining, cut-leafed sweet potato that produces tubers early. The sweet potato tubers have rich pink skin with a soft orange interior, and the plant yields a generous harvest. Korean Purple is another early, generous producer but has standard leaves and purple-skinned tubers. The tubers have white interiors, and the flesh is quite sweet. Okinawan, on the other hand, produces very poorly in most of North America, and the small, purple tubers are dry.
Tags: sweet potato, Porto Rico, sweet potatoes, tubers have, Amish Bush
