Growing – Harvest Time!

Wow! Here we are! As summer slowly drifts away in a mosquito cloud of humidity and back sweat, take a minute to pause and appreciate your grace and patience during this process. Was it only 100 days ago that you planted these cute little slips? 120 days? Who knows? Summer in Tennessee turns time into a mirage of haze and heat strokes, popsicles evolve into sticks, ice cream into Sundays, and before you know it, you’ve melted into a tepid Autumn breeze…

It’s time now to end one journey and begin the next chapter in your sweet potato adventure. The big H. That’s right, it’s time for…Harvest!

Raised beds with Japanese sweet potatoes in front, Beauregards and a few other varieties behind. See that little bed far in the distance back there? That’s in the picture below!

In-ground bed with Carolina Ruby variety sweet potatoes.

Cut back vines and roll out the green vine carpet away from the crop.

LOL this what not to do – try NOT to slice any sweet potatoes with your shovel. But you probably will get a couple. That’s okay.

In my experience, it is hard to gauge when exactly you should harvest to get an evenly sized crop. Every year I usually get some monster grotesque ones, some dinky little sweet potato tots (which are adorable though and worth keeping) and pretty much every size in between. I enjoy the variation, but also would like to know at some point if there’s a way to get more consistent sizing. 

I usually err on the side of a later harvest but be careful – recently lots of September rain came and caused some rotting (happened to a few of my plants this year sadly). It is best to harvest during a decent dry spell if possible. 

Harvesting potatoes takes slow and careful work and a fair amount of digging. It’s not as quick as plucking a ripe tomato from the vine, but the effort is worth it. You can find your original plant by digging through the tangle of vines and gently digging around it to see where to spuds have grown.

Pull back vines and find your original plant source. You can cut back the vines one plant at a time or all together. Carefully excavate around the root base until your see your amazing potatoes poking through the dirt. They will be ugly but also beautiful. Usually in a big clump of 3-6 potatoes with be all stuck together. Dig carefully with a garden fork (or shovel). I use both but be careful with the shovel it is easier to slice a root in half accidentally. Even with the fork you’ll probably end up stabbing one or two. There are always little independent-thinking ones hiding a foot or so away from the main crop – so dig all around with a mission of discovery. Start digging further away from the plant – dig deep and pull up to try to loosen the soil around the crop. Pull out the potatoes and marvel at what that land provides. Handle them gently, they are delicate and will scratch and bruise easily. 

Pitchforks are good to loosen the soil below the potato bunch – dig in deep and push up slowly to release the potatoes from their dirty home.

Bucket full of of Carolina Ruby variety sweet potatoes.

Thank yourself for your patience. You’ve been waiting all summer for this.

Now I know you want to just bite right into these fresh potatoes! You’ve been waiting so long, but not yet! They need to “cure”.  Set them in a dry spot for several hours  – do not wash or rinse with water! We have a covered porch (ooh la la, right?) so that’s a good spot to be outside but away from the elements. After they are dry – dust them off and wipe off the extra clumps of soil (I like to use an old paint brush for this). Take some photos of course because they are probably awesome and ugly looking and goofy shaped and you want to share your experience with the world. Maybe you got some adorable little ones. Maybe you got one huge one. You are so cool for growing these!

Curing is vital for taste and long term storage. They need to heal from any scratches and develop their internal sweetness. Do no refrigerate. They’ll need to rest is a temperature controlled space for around 2 weeks now, I keep mine in baskets in the dining room so I can admire them everyday.

Pretty crappy photo but here is my yield this year! More photoshoots coming soon.

Little video of sweet potato digging! Like excavating dinosaur bones, but better!

Digging around these sweet potatoes – looking good!