For Alecia Searcy of Gum Creek Farms, growing sweet potatoes is a family tradition. She remembers her great grandfather and grandfather growing sweet potatoes on Carroll County land the family purchased in 1940.
Gum Creek Farms “focuses on protein” Searcy says, selling locally grown heritage pork, lamb and beef to more than 25 different metro Atlanta restaurants. But the Roopville farm also has a garden patch where Searcy grows vegetables for the family, including Beauregard sweet potatoes, the variety her grandfather, Horace Johnson, grew most often.
“My great grandfather, W. E. Johnson, and grandfather grew sweet potatoes for many years. And they built a sweet potato curing house as a resource for the community as well as a source of revenue for the family. Once a sweet potato is dug, it’s not very good to eat until it’s been cured. Curing keeps the sweet potatoes at about 80 to 85 degrees. During that time, the starches in the sweet potatoes turn to sugars which gives them the flavor we enjoy eating,” said Searcy.
Sweet potatoes are generally dug around Labor Day or a little after as temperatures are beginning to drop. A sweet potato curing house like the Johnsons was heated by a fire kept burning under the building. The amount of heat was controlled by vents in the floor and roof. Kept at the right temperature, the sweet potatoes would cure in a week or two, then once cured could be stored for months if kept at 60 to 65 degrees.
A building like the curing house would provide a controlled environment to protect a crop that could feed a farmer and his family for months. Otherwise the farmer had to turn to methods like the makeshift curing “house” Searcy once created using a pickup truck fitted with a camper shell. “We left it parked in the sun and cured the sweet potatoes that way. But that’s not the best way to control the temperature.”
Searcy remembers when sweet potato planting was an annual tradition. “As granddaddy grew older he couldn’t do all the work himself. He invited his friends to plant sweet potatoes around Memorial Day and he’d buy a BBQ dinner for everyone. He’d weed the patch during the growing season and from time to time, I’d help him do that. Then the fall harvest would bring lots of friends and family members.” She recalls the fall harvest as being like a little festival, yielding sweet potatoes to last through late spring.
Baking sweet potatoes at 350 to 375 degrees continues to sweeten the sweet potato flesh. “My mother and all her family love sweet potatoes because we grew up eating them. We like them as an old-fashioned baked potato fresh out of the oven, but I like to heat butter in a cast iron skillet and get it real hot in the oven, then roll fingerling sweet potatoes in the hot butter, sprinkle them with a little cinnamon and bake them. Or cut them into chunks and roast them with olive oil and rosemary. Of course there’s sweet potato souffle. That would be my favorite. It’s also the most fattening and least healthy way to eat them, but it’s the most delicious.”
Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Espelette Pepper
Not only can you roast up local sweet potatoes for much of the year, but you can season them with Espelette pepper that’s locally grown and smoked. This mildly hot pepper is one of many peppers grown and then smoked by Green Ola Farm and offered for sale at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. When grown in a protected region of southwest France, this pepper earns the designation of “piment d’Espelette.” No Espelette pepper in your pantry? Specialty markets are brimming with sweet, smoky and mildly hot peppers these days. Or use sweet paprika.
4 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons canola oil
Salt and Espelette pepper
Chopped green onions, for garnish
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Peel sweet potatoes and cut each into 8 wedges. Put wedges in a large bowl. Mix honey and canola oil and pour over potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and Espelette pepper and toss until all wedges are coated. Arrange wedges on prepared baking sheet. Bake 25 minutes or until wedges are tender and edges begin to brown. Cook longer if you prefer a crisper texture. Arrange on serving platter, sprinkle with chopped green onions and serve warm. Serves: 8
Per serving: 136 calories (percent of calories from fat, 26), 1 gram protein, 24 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 4 grams fat (trace saturated fat), no cholesterol, 9 milligrams sodium.
