Sweet Potato Harvest 2021

For the umpteenth year in a row, the sweet potatoes came up on their own and invaded almost a quarter of the space in the garden.  The vines, coaxed by the fertile soil, warm sunshine and an abundance of rain, grew so fast you could almost watch it grow!  The crop originally started from a Beauregard Sweet Potato we buried in the compost pile maybe two decades ago.  It subsequently sprouted and spread across the garden that year and every year since.  Probably 5 - 10 years ago, we planted a Tennessee heirloom sweet potato called, Golden Wonder, and it has done the same.

Each year in October, we harvest the sweet potatoes.  We NEED the space in the garden to plant the fall crop, so the sweet potato vines come up and get fed to the cows.  The sweet potatoes themselves get dug up and then the ground gets worked and seeds get planted - all in one fell swoop.

I might also mention that sweet potato vines have pretty blooms that you can see amongst the vines.

Here is the leaf of a Beauregard Sweet Potato.  It was developed right here in Louisiana.  You can see that it has a readily identifiable heart shaped leaf.  We like these the best.  The flesh is deep orange and sweet.  The tubers are long and fat.

And here is the leaf on the vine of a Golden wonder sweet potato.  Their leaves are more spiked than the Beauregard.  True to its name, the Golden Wonder has flesh that is golden to yellow in color.  The tubers can be long like the Beauregard, but many are more rounded in shape.

The first step is to pull the vines.  Sometimes, the sweet potato will pop right out of the ground.  As the soil improves, that is what is supposed to happen.

Our process works like this:  We pull back the vines for about a four foot by 15 foot area and toss the vines over to the cows and goats to eat.  Those critters love them some sweet potato vines.  They must be sweet because they eat all the leaves first and then devour most of the vines, too.

When the vines are pulled back, sometimes you can spot the sweet potatoes like below:

These are simple.  You give them a tug and most of the time, they pop right out of the ground.  Many times, though, you can't see them and have to dig up the entire area so you don't miss them.

This is just a beautiful Beauregard Sweet Potato!  I'd like to tell you that they were ALL like this, but I'd be pulling your leg.  We'll show you a little more on the different sizes and how we grade them in the post tomorrow.

Here is a Golden Wonder.  Tricia has a preference for the Beauregard variety.  Next year, we will discourage the growth of the Golden Wonders and allow the Beauregard variety to proliferate.  Right now the Golden Wonders are overtaking the Beauregards.

We had a nice harvest this year and will have plenty sweet potatoes to eat over the winter.  They store nicely, so we don't have to worry about them going bad.  Tomorrow, we'll document our grading process, our curing process and document the total weight of the 2021 harvest.