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Facts and Fiction About Sweet Potatoes |
- Sweet Potato is not a potato, not even a distant cousin. Potatoes are truly tubers; SweetPotatoes are roots.
- Sweet Potatoes are part of the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae); their genus Ipomoea batatas.
- Sweet Potatoes are as American as apple pie, and even more so. Native Americans were already growing SweetPotatoes when Columbus came to these shores in 1492.
- Sweet Potatoes have been growing in the South for as early as 1648. Today, more than 40 percent of the national supply of Sweet Potatoes comes from North Carolina, the Sweet Potato Capitol of America.
- A favorite of the herbivore dinosaurs??? Sweet Potatoes have been around since prehistoric times
- What's in a name? When it comes to the yam, a bit of confusion. What is marketed in the United States as "yams" are really a variety of Sweet Potato, grown in the South. A true yam is a starchy edible root of the Dioscorea genus, and is generally imported to America from the Caribbean. It is rough and scaly and very low in beta carotene.
- "Yams," as the industry and general public perceives them, are actually Sweet Potatoes with a vivid orange color and a soft moist consistency when cooked, and tend to have a sweeter flavor. Other varieties of Sweet Potatoes are lighter skinned and have a firmer, drier texture when cooked.
- Sweet Potatoes are smooth with skins that can vary in color, depending on the variety, from pale yellow to deep purple to vivid orange. Flesh colors can range from light yellow to pink, red or orange.
- The American "yam" is a copper-colored Sweet Potato with a golden-red flesh that is moist when cooked and has a sweeter flavor than the "drier" varieties, They are grown primarily in the South, most notably North Carolina (43,000 acres) and Louisiana with California, Mississippi, Alabama, New Jersey, Texas, and South Carolina following. Other varieties, grown in California and the North, around New Jersey, have a flesh that is light yellow or pale orange in color and are drier and stay firmer when cooked.
- North Carolina Sweet Potatoes are available throughout the year. They are in abundance from September through June.
- Sweet Potatoes can be baked, boiled, broiled, stuffed, steamed, stir-fried or microwaved; or served raw. They go well with pork, chicken, turkey, beef, lamb and other meats, as well as fish, and can be included in recipes for stews, soups and salads as well as in baked goods such as moist breads, pies, custards and cakes.
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