All photos: courtesy of Powisset Farm

Meryl LaTronica
Farm Manager, Powisset Farm

 A sea of sweet potatoes!

This week at Powisset Farm we began the glorious task of harvesting sweet potatoes. Growing sweet potatoes in New England can be a challenge because these spuds require a long growing season and lots of heat. At Powisset we order our sweet potato plants from a place in Georgia—admittedly not our most sustainable crop—to plant them in early June. The plants arrive by mail and are piled together in moist clusters wrapped in paper and wet woodchip-like material. We pull apart the plants, which have long delicate roots and a tiny green leave at the top, and cover them in moist soil to provide them re-growth and recovery time from their journey north. 

After a week or so of recovery time, we prepare the soil and plant our sweet potatoes.  We tuck the long roots into soft, mounded soil, each one a foot apart. This year being a dry season, we ran drip tape along the rows, watering the plants in thoroughly after planting them in the soil. For months, we cultivate the sweet potatoes with tractors, hoes and hands, doing our best to keep the beds clean of annual weeds such as amaranth and a variety of grasses.�

Unlike our normal potatoes, the sweet potatoes are part of the morning glory family. This means that their plants vine out and sprawl over the fields, connecting with each other and making a sea of sweet potatoes. Each bed becomes nearly indistinguishable from the next. 

September arrives, and we begin to change our focus from tomatoes and peppers to kale, winter squash and sweet potatoes. To pull the spuds from the ground, we first have to wade through the sea of vines, pulling them off and away from our picking area. Then we locate the heart of the plant, where all the potatoes are hiding. Next, we use a pitchfork to loosen the soil around and under the large vegetable. And, finally, we reach into the damp soil and pull out the misshapen, elongated, twisted, beautiful sweet potatoes. Now it’s time to cut them up, roast them and enjoy the best sweet potato fries I’ve had all year!