How far north has any one grown sweet potatoes?
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How far north has any one grown sweet potatoes?
We had them in NW Ohio.
Pat
I did order 100 plants, will try them and see how it goes.
Sure hope they work out OK. I'd hedge my bets and not put too many of them out till frost danger was pretty remote. If you have any masonry surfaces, walls or whatever that you could plant just on the south side of that would offer some protection too. If you put all your eggs (taters?) in one basket (location) at the same time then a late frost could spoil your fun.
Hope you have a super crop. Some of our steak houses around these parts now offer a baked sweet potato substitution for an "Irish" potato and given the chance I leave my heritage behind and go for the baked sweetie with a liittle butter and brown sugar. A medium sized steak, a good size sweet potato, and a moderate salad and I am good. With a little butter and brown sugar on a sweet potato and you HAVE DESSERT.
Good luck,
Pat
They do not even ship them to ND until the end of May.
They will just be put on in the garden with the rest of the produce, no walls etc. out there, but will have covers available if needed.
Well lets see if I can recall the approximate date of the last frost or when frost risk is below some small value like one percent...
Lets see now... Early June sometime?
Pat
Yep, Pat, a steak, salad, and sweet potato makes a nice meal, but we just never put the brown sugar on it; just butter. But my wife's family in West Virginia baked their sweet potatoes about half done, then split them (cut then in half) lengthwise, put butter and brown sugar on them, and finished baking them as a dessert all the time.
It has really become quite goofy with the frost dates up there, in the five years that I have been in the garden business, some years I have had a frost in June and others none or very light after the first of May. Last year I planted the beans the first week of May, one very light frost after that which put them back a couple of days. Should have transplanted all of the peppers and tomatoes then. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
The typical sweet potato is sweet enough without brown sugar but a little bit of brown sugar isn't a bad thing.
I think the restaurants do the bake half way thing then do the butter and brown sugar too like you said.
Dang, making me have a hankerin' for a sweet tater and I got nary a one in stock. Oh well, I got 3/4 of a Marie Calender pecan pie. I was with a bud the other day in Norman and we stopped by MC for him to get his favorite chocolate pie. Pies were on sale for $5.99 for any pie so I got a Kahlua for my wide and a pecan for me. This with 15 lbs of pecan nutmeats in a bag on the counter fresh back from the nut cracker being cracked and blown and hand checked for oops by us. It was my friends fault, I would have never stopped at MC's if it wasn't for him.
Pat
Pat, I like brown sugar all right, and even keep some on hand to make my chocolate chip cookies, but just never think about it when we have sweet potatoes. But I smoked a brisket today, so no sweet potato; just beef, beans, cole slaw, onion slices, barbecue sauce, and bread. I don't often smoke a whole brisket when we don't have company, but we can freeze some of it for later.
I sliced all the brisket, but tomorrow I'll cube some of the slices to make another of my favorite meals, and a very simple one at that. I just put the cubed beef, an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce, two cans of mixed vegetables, a little water, and a little salt and pepper in the crockpot, then make a batch of cornbread to go with my homemade vegetable beef soup. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
Bird you better be glad i am a 1000 miles away otherwise I would be knocking on your door about noon tomorrow. Wait a minute my sister lives there maybe I can send her for some of that soup and cornbread.
Brown sugar is good on sweet potatoes...but wait till you try it with pure maple syrup. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Bird, I'm glad I'm not hungry right now as your post would be torture! I bet cubed brisket would do chili nicely too.
My wife made some chili last month and used V-8 juice (low sodium but that is just us) instead of water. We liked it so much she did it a couple more times in the following weeks. It sort of brightens up the flavor like lemon juice does to some things but without the strong acidity.
If you ever need a recommendation as a cook, you could get a petition with lots of names on it right here on CBN. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Pat
Pat, I don't actually drink it very often, but have liked V-8 ever since I was just a kid, so I I keep a few cans on hand all the time, but I've never tried it for any cooking purposes. I guess I'll have to try that. We used to make chili using a variety of recipes, but got lazy and found something we like, too, so now we just use the Wick Fowler 2-alarm chili mix. Of course, it calls for a can of tomato sauce, and we use double the amount it calls for. If I use V-8 instead of water, I wonder whether I should still use some tomato sauce or not. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] Guess I'll have to experiment. Did your wife use tomato sauce or did she use the V-8 for both water and tomato sauce?
Bird, I just quizzed her about it and as best she can recall she just substituted V-8 for the water and still used tomato sauce and chunked canned tomatoes.
Pat
OK, Pat. Thanks. I'll be giving that a try.
Well, we have a cool, wet day, so I started the chili pretty early this morning in the crockpot and just finished my second bowl. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] And yep, it's pretty good with V-8 juice instead of water.
Bird, Thanks for the comment. This makes my day! I thought I would never be able to offer you a simple culinary suggestion that was both new to you and you liked. It is hard to come up with something for such a seasoned cook.
I credit my wife who keeps V-8 in the frige and did it on her own.
Pat
Do they store well? I was wondering if I grew a bunch, would they sit well in a cool spot and not spoil?
A Google on sweet potato storage produced:
Sweet Potato Storage: Fresh sweet potatoes generally do not store well, except under ideal conditions, and bruised ones rapidly deteriorate. In a dry, dark, cool (55 degrees F.) place, they can last up to three to four weeks. Plan on using within one week of purchase and do not refrigerate. Cooked sweet potatoes can be stored in the refrigerator in a covered container for 4 to 5 days. To freeze, pack in an airtight container, leaving 1/2-inch headroom and store for 10 to 12 months at 0 degrees F.
And oh by the way, DD, which variety of steet tater did you order? It is the thin skinned yellowish one or the thicker skinned orangey one? I like the orange one much better, even if folks who don't know often call them yams, which they ARE NOT.
Pat
Georgia Jet which is a red skinned, orange fleshed and somewhat cold tolerant.
DD, Sounds like a good choice. the red-orange are better textured than the yellow ones which are more the texture of an "Irish" potato.
Onion sets have been in the farm and ranch stores here for some weeks now. Soon gardening fever will spread around the area. Last year one of our friends who builds 30-50 houses a year got his onions in just before several inches of snow but they made it just fine. Onion sets, at least some varieties, are danged hardy.
We are due for freezing rain tonight as our roller coaster ride takes another dip in temps. We actually had an afternoon last month that hit 81F. Some trees get seriously "fooled" and bud out and sometimes sprout leaves only to lose them and have to start over.
Pat
For onions, we use live plants, the are scheduled to be shipped the 15th of April. All 9900 of them.
I tried some purple, or red, onions one year. They didn't do too bad but don't keep well. But other than that one experiment, I always used lots of Texas 1015Y onions, and got my onion sets in the ground before the first of February. Even a freeze that kills the tops and turns them black won't stop them. I've tried both just leaving them alone, and also tried cutting the blackened part off with a pair of old scissors. The onions did just fine either way.
This year I ordered eight different varieties. Two red, five yellow and a white.
They all vary in the amount of time that they will keep, the one type of red is two to three months and the other is six to eight months. The white is about two months. The yellow will range from one month to ten months.
However, this will depend upon the storage conditions, we are still using onions that should have gone bad a long time ago, sometimes they sprout and we just cut that part out when we slice them up. However there is nothing worse than an onion gone bad unless it is a potato.
The rule is, the sweeter the onion, the shorter the storage life.
I tied my onions with string, about 6 to a bundle and hung them from nails in the shop, and yep, the 1015Ys would keep many months. We lost very few to rot, but generally used all of them by December.
You Fellars and food!! Sure know how to hurt a guy that's been living on Ice cubes and water for the past week! [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Just to let you know that we just finished supper and it was pancakes and bulk deer sausage.
Just why are we living on ice cubes and water?
Egon, Good to hear from you. Won't they let you have flavored ice cubes?
Pat
Even had the good stuff cut back! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Bummer. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
If Ida know that Id of stayed home!
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Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]