Mother Earth Gardener

PURPLE   SWEET POTATOES   The Ancient Superfood

COMPANIES SPECIALIZING IN exotic produce make it their priority to supply community supermarkets that would otherwise go without access to unique produce items. These companies have helped spark the appearance of more recent and now-familiar items, such as persimmons, rambutan, and cucamelon. Not only fruit products have gained in popularity, though — specialty vegetable items have also been attracting attention.

Unbeknownst to some consumers, sweet potatoes come in a variety of colors besides the traditional orange, including red, yellow, and white. And there are also purple sweet potatoes, offering unrivaled health benefits. “It’s definitely not your typical sweet potato,” says Mary Landis. She’s a former “forager” for Frieda’s, a specialty produce company based in California that introduces unusual fruits and vegetables to American tables. If you like kiwis and dragon fruits, you have Frieda’s to thank for convincing grocery stores to carry these unique produce items and others like them.

In 2010, a sweet potato supplier of Frieda’s, A.V. Thomas Produce, told Landis they’d planted a trial of a North Carolina sweet potato that had rich, nearly black-purple skin and flesh that turned-purple.”

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Mother Earth Gardener

Mother Earth Gardener7 min read
Piecing Together Plants
TOTIPOTENCE REFERS TO the potential ability of any part of a plant — except reproductive cells (egg and sperm) within a flower — to give rise to any other part of a plant, or even to a whole new plant. That’s because all of a plant’s cells (with some
Mother Earth Gardener1 min read
Successful Species
(A. alnifolia) This multi-stemmed shrub can grow 10 or more feet tall. Saskatoons are best known for their delicious fruit; the cultivars of this species are the most popular for home gardens as well as commercial fruit production. A. alnifolia sprea
Mother Earth Gardener4 min read
Korean Natural Farming Basics
AS A SMALL-SCALE FARMER, I’m constantly looking for ways to fertilize my garden with on-farm inputs. This includes making my own compost from kitchen scraps, leaves, and chicken and rabbit manure. Despite my efforts, I still had to rely on some input

Related Books & Audiobooks