sweet potatoes Archives - A Country Girl's Heart -Beats that Matter

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Most farmer’s markets ended in our area with the month of September. The Fall Season officially started on Saturday Sept. 22 this year. Changes are in the air!! A look around for the first two weeks showed only the beginning of the transformation yet to come. The fun of each season: Even though they repeat every year no two are alike. At first temperatures were warm with many a sunshiny day. This weather pattern changed and as of mid October highs have been in the 50’s with lows in the 30’s and 40’s.

Some flowers are dying off in the late summer(September)while others are only beginning to bloom indicating the changes to come.

I recall as a child enjoying horseback rides along the dirt back roads enjoying the colors fall brings. Lately I have not been riding as often, but I still enjoy the colors. I recently took the short drive down one of the few dirt roads left from my childhood I used to ride on. Many memories can be recalled from era spent on horseback along this dirt road of my life. One of the first was my sister and I getting bucked off our pony, Glady, while riding double. Another involved riding Glady in tight circles at a walk envisioning that myself a barrel racer at a rodeo. The third was driving our pony Rebel Breeze when snow covered the road in a stone boat with a bale of hay for a seat. The landscape has changed in the last 25 plus years, but the feeling of a dirt road, lined with majestic trees displaying pretty fall colors consistently brings a peaceful feeling to my heart.

Blooming flowers around the farm and down local roads this year are pictured through out this post.

I recently visited Pigeon Forge, TN and the Smoky Mountains. Some of the same flower that grow here were also in blossom in the State Park in both TN and North Carolina.

I welcome the sometime cooler days and even the rainy one. By this time of the year I find myself over the humid, hot air I welcomed only a few months earlier. How fickle I am.

Hard neck garlic is planted in the fall before the ground freezes. Not to be confused with a frost as we sometimes experience many frosts before the ground actually freezes. My thoughts have turned to where the garlic will be planted this year. I am going to be planting more than I have in the past so new ground needs to be prepared. The soil needs to be worked, weeded and prepared where the garlic was planted last year. I intend to include a larger area there as well.

I recently finished harvesting the sweet potatoes I grew in buckets. The crop was not as productive as it has been in the past. While a few were large, many did not grow as big. Perhaps I did not leave enough time for the root development in the water this spring to allow for larger root development before planting. Note to self: Start indoors earlier and plant outside earlier. I used the same general process as I have in the past. Want to read about my previous experience with planting sweet potatoes. Click on the blog post titled: Growing Sweet Potatoes in a Bucket. I get excited to think that most people, no matter how large or small their property is, can grow sweet potatoes. Even someone who owns a small lot or has patio access with adequate sunlight has options using buckets and fertile soil.

I enjoy fresh air, kittens playing, kittens playing and horses in all their displays of beauty, beautiful fall colors at the moment, pretty flowers and the way I see the homestead SLOWLY making process. Fall brings a different smell to the air, the rustle of leaves falling in the woods, and the sound of farm machinery harvesting and drying crops.

I like how fall tickles all of my senses

The feel of a cool brisk morning air and the warmth of afternoon sunshine. The gritty dirt in hand as I work preparing soil for planting.

The sight of pretty colors developing and eventually, for a short time, vivid display of all that is fall.

The sound of combines and crop dryers running both near and far sometimes late into the night. Birds chirping, the rustles of leaves when walking in the woods and the sound of leaves falling when the wind blows.

My favorite flavor has been baked sweet potatoes smothered in butter and salt. I seem to enjoy coffee more as the weather turns colder, chi has been another fall favorite hot drink of mine this year.

The fall season has a smell all its own both in the woods and across the farm and country air. It seems clean and fresh despite the fact we are facing the inevitable coming black and white of winter months.

How do you enjoy fall with all of your senses? Be sure to leave a comment below.

Life on the farm this 2018 Fall Season

This morning dawned with pretty sunshine and the second (or third) hard frost of the season. I am looking forward to digging into an outdoor project this afternoon. I recently listed the projects I want to work on before the ground actually freezes and the snow flies. Some must be done and others have less importance. I was brain dumping and they are in no particular order.

Have you read my previous blog on seasons?

Check it out by clicking below:

Roots and Wings: Seasons

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My Mom, seen my sprouting sweet potatoes on the counter and exclaimed, “You know you can grow sweet potatoes from these”? She had given them to me, purchased locally to her house. I had not eaten them all. Intrigued, I ask her for more details. This is how I began growing my own sweet potatoes.

She clued me in to the procedure. Showing me how to twist off the sprout at its base, she said, “If you stick them in water they will grow roots like crazy and make sure you keep adding water”. Excited to see this process for myself I set up two glass jars. I since learned there is also another way to start sweet potatoes. One can place a cut section of a the potato in water and it will grow both roots and a vines. This too would be planted in soil to grow sweet potatoes.

I set them near a window to allow them access to sunshine. Over a period of several weeks I did indeed have a sweet potato plant ready to place in soil.

I started some in smaller pots of dirt before moving to a permanent growing pot. Unless the weather has not warmed enough to safely leave the plants outside, I would recommend planting directly into the container or ground where you will be growing the Sweet Potatoes.

I learned through a FB group that sweet potatoes could be grown in buckets. One of my goals, as I began exploring how I was going to live a homestead lifestyle, was to use what I have. Remembering I had saved cracked water buckets, I happily located them. Some had cracked from water freezing in them and others had not survived the pawing of a horse. They were going to be perfect for allowing the soil to drain.

For soil, I went to what was left of a horse manure pile from several years past. Bits and pieces of decomposing shavings left among the decomposed manure created a small amount of aeration. How cool! What was once horse manure was now a nutrient rich soil available for me to grow food in. Ah Ha! The horses do have a part in this homestead. They are producing potting soil.

Once planted, regular watering(if there is not adequate rainfall) and keeping the weeds picked out are the only needed work til harvest. These plants grow a rather large leaf base so after they are big enough the weeds are less of a concern.

My first year growing sweet potatoes I did not know what to expect at harvest. When the weather was forecast to be below freezing in a few nights I knew the growing season was coming to an end for the potted plants. The beauty of raising potatoes in pots is dumping them to harvest the potatoes. No digging!

I remember looking at the top of the bucket, seeing some potatos and hoping they were big enough.

I also recall turning the bucket over. Much to my delight I found my worry had disappeared for all I could see through the crack across the bottom of the bucket was one large sweet potato!

I was impressed with the size of the sweet potatoes.

One of the best parts of this process was that I had produced food with out spending any money. While not everyone can initially start for free, there are ways to start with only a small investment. Anyone can raise sweet potatoes even if living in an urban environment. Every year save some potatoes for sprouting for the next year. This is one way to produce food, with the health benefits of eating local food, for minimal to no cost.

I cook them wrapped in tin foil, baked in the oven until soft(about an hour) and topped with salt and real butter…um, YUM! Of course there are many recipes for sweet potatoes, but this option meets the requirements for my current health challenges. What are your favorite sweet potato recipes?

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Tag: sweet potatoes

Seasons: Fall 2018

Growing Sweet Potatoes in a Bucket