FIELD NOTES:

It’s sweet-tater time and there’s a whole host of reasons we love this guy. For most of the season, the crop is basically keeping its secrets underground. You see the vines (ALSO EDIBLE!)  sprawling across the field, but you have no idea what’s happening beneath them until harvest day.

Then comes the digging.

We loosen the soil and start pulling the plants, revealing those bright, oddly shaped roots hiding underneath. Some are perfectly smooth and uniform. Others are wonderfully wonky and look like they took a wrong turn underground. Either way, every sweet potato feels a little like finding buried treasure.

Sweet potatoes have a surprisingly long history in North America. They were being grown by Indigenous peoples in the southeastern United States and the Caribbean long before European colonization. The crop was already well established in the Americas when European explorers arrived and eventually became an important crop throughout the warmer parts of North America.

And despite their name, sweet potatoes aren't actually potatoes at all. Potatoes are members of the nightshade family, while sweet potatoes belong to the morning glory family. Their edible roots are storage organs that the plant uses to tuck away energy — essentially a little underground pantry.

Sweet potatoes are also a crop with impressive staying power. They love heat, tolerate less-than-perfect soil, and produce their crop underground, making them a valuable crop in warm climates.

But harvesting them isn't the end of the story. Freshly dug sweet potatoes actually need a little spa treatment before they're ready for long-term storage.

After harvest, we cure our sweet potatoes in a cooler where we can control both temperature and humidity. Curing gives the roots time to heal the tiny cuts and scrapes that inevitably happen during digging and handling. The warm, humid conditions encourage the skin to toughen up, which helps prevent moisture loss, rot and disease during storage. It also gives the sweet potato time to develop more of the sweetness and flavor we associate with a really good sweet potato.

So, yes, our sweet potatoes get their own humid little recovery room after coming out of the field.

Once they're cured, they're ready to head into storage, where they'll keep for months — which is one of the reasons sweet potatoes have been such a valuable crop for generations.

When you see sweet potatoes showing up in the farm stand this time of year, you're looking at the end result of a crop that has been quietly doing its thing underground for months — carrying on a very old agricultural tradition, one buried root at a time.

And honestly, there are few better fall surprises than pulling a sweet potato out of the ground and realizing you've got a really good one. 

FARM HAPPENINGS: 

Applefest was a complete success - thank you to all who made it out to support this special little farm! We can’t wait to do more! For those who missed it, enjoy a little BTS look at what the day held (small photo gallery if we have some??) 

While we recharge a bit we’re already dreaming of what is next to come! 

HOW TO EAT YOUR VEGGIES: Spicy Crunchy Festive - Apple, Fennel & Kale Salad

Thinly slice 1–2 apples and 1 small fennel bulb, then toss with 1 bunch kale, finely chopped. Give the kale a little massage with your hands as you toss everything together—this softens it up and makes it much more salad-y.

Add a handful of toasted walnuts or pecans and, if you’re feeling fancy, some crumbled feta or goat cheese.

Simple dressing:

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp honey or maple syrup

Salt + pepper

Shake it all together, pour over the salad, toss, and call it dinner or at least a very respectable side dish.