Sweet Potato Leaves~

 

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Ahhh the sweet potato! Sweet, delicious, nutritious along with its many other attributes. 

I was happily minding my own business one day, scrolling Facebook, and happened to notice this post by Merriwether's Foraging Texas . Intrigued, I set out on a quest to purchase an organic sweet potato the next time I had to go to the grocery store. No luck. They were out of organic ones, so I thought I would roll the dice and purchased a conventionally grown one. 

I got that baby home, stuck it in a glass of water and waited. In the meantime, the next grocery shopping trip, I struck gold! (Or should I say orange? 😉) I bought two organic sweet potatoes and ferried them home to join their step-sweet potato siblings on my windowsill. And I waited for the first tiny slips to sprout. 

And waited. Patiently at first, but as each passing day went by and my hopeful expectation every time I walked into the kitchen to gaze upon my (non existent) crop turned into exhasperation, I began to research. And I found Deep South Homestead. Danny suggested planting the sweet potatoes in the ground, not in water to get the slips started. AND BOY WAS HE RIGHT! I took the three tubers that had been languishing in glasses of water, plated the two organic ones in a large container filled with soil, and the non organic one in a garden bed, just for comparison of the two methods (garden soil vs container planting). I'm not surprised at how much more prolific the garden grown plant is compared to the other. But I am surprised at the abundance of leaves I am harvesting. I am SO excited! (Especially about the money we will save by not having to buy so many greens for our diet. It has particularly been a godsend in combating high food prices.)

Note: I am specifically growing them for the leaves, but hey, if we get some sweet taters outta the deal too...win-win! 

So far I have only used the leaves in smoothies, but I do plan on using them as one would with spinach or other similar greens. Hearty winter soups, stir-fries, sautéed with garlic and anything else I can come up with!

I have harvested some leaves from this organic sweet potato, but not many

If you are hungry (😉) for more info on sweet potato leaves here's an interesting article, and another.

Do you grow sweet potatoes for the leaves? I would love to hear how you use and prepare them.

Thanks for stopping by! ~TJ