The gardening calendar tells me that August is the time to plant sweet potatoes, and this specimen in the veggie basket agrees. It’s going in the ground today!

Domesticated sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) have been around for a long time; they were present In Central America at least 5,000 years ago. The tuberous root is long and tapered, with a smooth skin whose colour can be yellow, orange, red, brown, purple, or beige. Its flesh ranges from beige through white, red, pink, violet, yellow, orange, and purple. Sweet potato cultivars with white or pale yellow flesh are less sweet and moist than those with red, pink or orange flesh.

Although darker sweet potatoes are often referred to as “yams” in parts of North America, the species is very distant from true yams. I love the name “kumara” (emphasis on the first syllable) which I learned from my Kiwi friends.