Sweet Potato

[DUMBDOG]

How far north has any one grown sweet potatoes?

[Pat]

We had them in NW Ohio.

Pat

[DUMBDOG]

I did order 100 plants, will try them and see how it goes.

[Pat]

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

[DUMBDOG]

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.

[Pat]

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

[Bird]

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.

[Pat]

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

[lynxpilot]

Do they store well? I was wondering if I grew a bunch, would they sit well in a cool spot and not spoil?

[Pat]

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