In August, we ended up with a couple of medium-sized sweet potatoes (about 7-8 inches long) sitting in a basket on our kitchen countertop. They sat there for several weeks, then began to sprout.
So, my son took them out and planted them a few feet apart in our newly constructed flower bed. By the end of September, the resulting vines looked like this:
A couple of weeks ago, he noticed that the ground where he had planted them was being raised up. He dug these three out from one spot.
Today he decided that it was time for the final harvest, which resulted in this load:
Not a bad return on our investment–and the flowers are pretty, when you can see them. The vines are also home to some interesting bugs.
When I was a teenager, my great grandfather died digging sweet potatoes. As a child I did not like sweet potatoes. I later learned that I do like them, if they are plain with butter. I just don’t like them sweetened further. As for sweet potato pie… yeah… I can take that, too.
I’m partial to sweet potato french fries, myself. Use a little bit of sugar on them instead of salt (and maybe even some cinnamon), and heaven is not far from your mouth.
As a child I did not like sweet potatoes. I later learned that I do like them, if they are plain with butter. I just don’t like them sweetened further. As for sweet potato pie… yeah… I can take that, too.
A good number of them have already gone off to my daughter-in-law to become sweet potato pie.
I like 'em with butter and just a hint of freshly-ground nutmeg.
But my favorite thing is to chop up a couple, boil them until most of the water is gone, replace it with half-and-half, add a little salt, and go over it with one of those portable blender thingies until it’s sort of thick and fluffy.
Once a serving is in the bowl, I do a spider web design on top with a red pepper sauce (roasted red bell pepper, hot red pepper sauce [Sambal Oelek], and rice wine vinegar). The contrast between the sweet sweet potato (is that redundant?) and the hot & sour pepper sauce is very nice.
Goes well with pork chops and blackeyed peas.
As my wife used to say, “It’ll make you swallow your tongue.” (That’s a good thing.)
Since Dubh and Denny asked so nicely (and since I haven’t made the mousse yet), I’ve put up a page of fairly recent insect and spider shots at http://www.raccoonbend.com/texasbugs05.html.
Amen to that. A delicous simplicity that can’t be improved.
I understand that, unlike the true potato, sweet potato greens are edible and nourishing. I haven’t tried them, so I have no idea how they’re usually prepared.
I don’t know what you did to it, Mike, but that ant looks rather upset at you I wish I liked bugs more, and I didn’t get the heebies when I looked at them. But despite my phobias, you still take a great picture, Mike
Thanks. That’s not an ant, by the way. It’s a kind of hornet, I think. Actually, the hornets were very laid back, considering I was within a couple of inches of their nest. Ants are hard, because they won’t hold still and pose.
Ooooh! Those are so cool! I want to take up-close pictures of bugs now.
Too bad my camera isn’t good with small things or things up-close…I should try to take pictures of squirrels, mabey. They’re remarkably tame here. They sit on the bench with you, if you hold still, and will eat Fruit Loops if you constantly throw them at them, as I do.
Just don’t pet them or hold the food in your hand. Those little chisel teeth will go right down to the bone. (Based on what similar teeth on gophers did to my kids one time.)
It’s a shame that Nikon discontinued the camera that I use (Coolpix 4500) and hasn’t come out with a replacement. It’s probably the greatest camera in the world for that kind of photography. Double the pixel count without messing up any of the other features, and I’d buy one in a flash.
Are there such things as cameras which take ONLY small, up-close pictures, like of bugs or grains of rice? It seems that, if there were, they wouldn’t cost as much as the cameras which are powerful enough to take those kind of pictures and the regular bigger pictures…
The other day I saw a one-eyed squirrel eating a mushroom. I would have liked to have gotten a picture.
