We have grown 2,000 sweet potato slips for 3 or 4 years in a row now and have been happy with our results every year. We plant organic slips in May and eat some greens from them in August when other greens aren’t thriving and then in October we dig a few to see how they are sizing up. Mostly to get a taste of those nice roots that we’ve been missing! Around mid October we get serious and set aside a day or two to cut all the vines and move them and then begin the digging. We cure them in a heated room at 90 degrees for two weeks and then store them and enjoy all winter!
This year we decided to be wise and set aside two full days for this project…..then on the second day we realized it would take at least another whole day to finish, so we plodded along. Each root gets turned over with a plow or shovel, then gently wiped by hand and left to dry for a few hours, then picked up by hand and placed in a box and carried by hand to our storage room. These babies are grown and harvested with a lot of love and hand work. So as the rain prediction grew stronger and the night went on we had dinner and put the farmer children to bed. Farmer Sean and I headed back out with headlamps to finish the harvest and not ruin the potatoes. As it started to sprinkle a little past midnight we were hauling in the last of them! We pulled out the tarps we use for weed and erosion control and covered as much of the bare dirt as we could so as to lesson the amount of damage to the earth with the rain coming. We were happy to see the next morning that it worked and the lovely soil was well protected! Now, a few long days later have turned our sweet potato field into lovely garden beds ready for our garlic to be planted this week. By the end we harvested 4,400 pounds of sweet potatoes!!!!
Big projects feel so good to finish! Friends came by and offered a hand at popping all the garlic so the cloves are ready to go in later today! Speaking of other big projects, we have had a week to regroup, spend a fun day off the farm and are ready to roll with the winter CSA. It begins tomorrow! We have changed the farm store hours for pick up on meat weeks to 2-5 both Saturday and Thursday to make it easier. We are open for sales of any kind in the farm store then as well, so if you aren’t a member and want some thing please come on by!
We will be enjoying lots of sweet potato recipes, but here is the first soup we are going to try:
4 large sweet potatoes(2 1/2 pounds), cut in half
cooking oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup finely diced yellow onion (about 1 medium onion)
1/2 cup finely diced celery, (about 2 celery stalks)
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 cups chicken broth from the farm store
14 ounces milk
Additional salt and black pepper to taste
Begin by roasting the sweet potatoes. Preheat oven to 400-degrees F. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Coat sweet potato halves with oil. Place down on lined baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes at 400-degrees F. Discard peels. Transfer to a bowl and thoroughly mash. Or use your favorite instant pot recipe to cook them for a faster method!
While sweet potatoes are roasting, heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add butter and allow to melt. Add diced onion and celery; cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Grate garlic cloves directly into pan. Sprinkle in dried oregano, ground ginger, ground cumin, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
Stir in stock and milk. Bring to a low simmer; continue to simmer on low heat until potatoes are ready.
Whisk in mashed sweet potatoes until combined. Salt and pepper to taste. For a smoother consistency, carefully transfer soup to a food processor or use an immersion blender!
Enjoy and we’ll see you at the cabin!