My vision for the Sweet Potato Network - Preservation
Jun 22, 2021 16:48:26 GMT
june and nancygreenthumb like this
Post by macmex on Jun 22, 2021 16:48:26 GMT
I'm thinking as I write, so this won't be some kind of finished product as you read this first post. Why did I start the Sweet Potato Network?
I'm chronically overloaded with the work I do. Until recently I'd say I was chronically sleep deprived because of the crazy amount of stuff I attempted to do. I'll spare you the itemized list.
Anyway, why would I start this forum? I already started and moderate Green Country Seed Savers. We have a place to discuss sweet potatoes there. Why start this separate meeting place?
Here are some reasons:
1. More than almost any other crop I know, sweet potatoes probably have the most potential for producing a food source which would actually sustain someone in time of great need.
They are exceedingly reliable and when grown correctly produce a large crop for the space they use.
Sweet potatoes keep exceedingly well. About their only requirement is that they be stored where they don't get chilled. I regularly have good roots for eating 10 or 11 months after harvest.
The entire sweet potato plant makes good food. I can pick greens almost all summer, while I'm waiting on the roots.
Sweet potato vines are relished by certain domestic animals. Our goats and rabbits rejoice at harvest time, as I give them the excess vines.
Sweet potatoes are a very versatile food. We need to deal with recipes soon. Forget the traditional candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (though they are tasty). How about soups, pies, stews, stir fries, breads and, of course, my favorite: just plain baked and eaten skin and all?!
I am dead certain that the sweet potato is exceedingly underutilized, compared to the possibilities.
2. Sweet potatoes could be grown by most people with a little space. They can be grown in containers, as an ornamental, and still produce food
(leaves & roots) . If a person has only a small space to produce food, I cannot think of anything more useful and productive, for the square foot, than the sweet potato. In the case of very reduced space, their vines can even be trained onto a trellis, thus reducing their garden footprint.
3. There is way more diversity in sweet potatoes than 99.99 % gardeners think. They are diverse in the following areas:
Leaf shape and color
Vine length, thickness, color and length.
Growth habit
Flesh color
Moisture content
Sweetness
Flavor and texture
Skin color
Speed to produce a crop (affecting how well a given variety will do at a given latitude and climate)
Adaptation to salinity
Adaptation to type of soil
There are probably other differences which have slipped my mind or of which I am ignorant.
4. Sweet potato varieties are vulnerable. Only last year I learned that there is a technology to preserve their germplasm in vitrio. This is wonderful! However, for varieties to survive long term and be available to the average person, they need to be grown. Sweet potato varieties are actually clones of a single plant. Saved biological seed does not "come true." One cannot depend upon biological seed to maintain a given set of traits. Though they keep well, one cannot stash roots on the shelf, nor in the freezer (like seeds) for years on end. They generally need to be grown every year in order to be preserved. In today's society we have a decreasing number of people who have the stability (stay in one place, etc.) to keep varieties going for years or decades, on their own. They are a passion for me, yet several times in my life I have been through moves/changes which meant that I lost my entire collection. I was fortunate to be able to re-acquire those varieties because I had contact with others who grew them. The fact of the matter is that there are precious few growers maintaining truly rare varieties. From my perspective, it's likely that the number of folk truly preserving more than one or two varieties, and that, for more than one or two years, is shrinking. I know only two people who have had and maintained a large number of varieties. In recent years one of those two, due to personal circumstances, has had to cut way back and cannot offer sweet potatoes at all. The other (Sand Hill Preservation Center) is owned and maintained by a single couple, and that, on top of full time work! Sandhill Preservation Center is a treasure to the seed saving and heritage poultry community, yet so many times I hear criticism because they are not as fast, filling orders as a larger company or that they won't take online payment, etc.
Last year Sandhill Preservation Center suffered an enormous blow, after having set out their entire sweet potato crop. They were hit by a derecho (100 mph straight line wind) which destroyed a significant part of their crop. It didn't just damage it. It destroyed it. They even lost their backups. They are presently trying to hunt down a good many varieties which may be simply lost. If they are lost it's in large part because the seed saving community has taken for granted that "somebody" like them would just have these varieties on hand whenever they should be desired.
5. It is very important that something be done to give endangered varieties more margin. I can think of a number of ways to do this:
A. Get more people growing sweet potatoes. We need more people to be growing and enjoying them.
Encourage lots and lots of gardeners to adopt and maintain various varieties. You've heard the term "different strokes for different folks?" Well, the same is true of sweet potatoes and the people who grow them. There are varieties I'm not that fond of and there are varieties I adore.
There is even a variety I adore which I probably can't grow where I live. Some varieties I am not all that fond of are favorites of some of my customers. So this is a good reason we need a good many individuals to be growing and preserving sweet potatoes. What you don't like, is more likely to get neglected and lost.
Most people don't have enough experience with different varieties to know what their favorite might be. It is a really good thing to get more people growing a number of varieties, to wake them up to the diversity which is out there.
B. Get more gardeners into actually saving and reproducing the sweet potatoes from year to year. My wife's grandparents had just one sweet potato variety, but they kept it going for many years. There is value in this. It gets better when such a gardener makes it known to others what they have and shares with them.
C. Get more gardeners into growing, reproducing and sharing a number of varieties of sweet potatoes. I suspect that most gardeners who experience the diversity of the sweet potato could still be content with just three or four varieties. Once they settle on which ones they enjoy most they could then let others know what they have available. This is how I got into selling slips. I had three varieties and a friend asked if I would sell them any extra slips I might have. And... they asked every year for a couple of years, until it occurred to me that I might as well plan on growing extras for that purpose! I also shared through the Seed Savers Exchange, which is how I met Gary Schuam of Duck Creek Farms.
For years Gary and Glenn Drowns (Sandhill) have helped one another with finding new varieties and recovering those which get lost to natural disaster. Both have helped me to recover varieties I have lost. One year I lost all my varieties and Gary graciously sent me every one of them, plus a couple more. Having a kind of fellowship of sweet potato preservationists is a superb way to increase the resiliency of sweet potatoes!
Finally,
D. Get more gardeners selling sweet potato slips. Even if one just puts up a 3X5" card in the local Farmers' Co-op or feed store, selling slips is a wonderful way to promote the sweet potato as a crop.
1. I am often saddened at what poor quality and low variety is available in main stream garden centers.
2. Selling slips is a wonderful way to educate gardeners in the wonders of sweet potato varieties and propagation. For years I have sold slips via Craigslist. With time I've come to have enough regular clients that I hardly have to advertise. Some drop by to pick up slips, and when they do, we often have great conversations about varieties, growing techniques and recipes! When we visit, it's not uncommon that I'll pull an extra slip or two, of a variety I'm trialing, and present it to a customer, saying, "Here, try this and let me know what you think." One time I received a phone call from a client who sheepishly asked me how I make slips. They wanted to do the same. I suppose they were puzzled by my elation. You see, we must complete the cycle and reproduce those who produce and preserve if we're to actually accomplish anything in terms of actual sweet potato preservation. Selling slips is kind of like beekeeping (which I also do). There is probably room for 100 times more people to keep bees in my area. If more did, everybody, including the bees would benefit.
Conclusion (for now):
We need more Garys, Glenns and Lindas (Glenn's wife and helpmate). We also need more grandmas and grandpas who grow and maintain a single variety. We need more consumers who ask for more varieties, even if they can't grow them. We desperately need younger people to pick up the torch, grow, propagate and share sweet potato varieties and:
We need places where interested people can come, learn and share about this wonderful crop. We need meeting places for those who are interested and/or involved. That's what the Sweet Potato Connection is about. I want this to be a place for folk to learn and encourage others to try, to grow, to maintain and to enjoy sweet potatoes, especially the rarer kinds. We need places like this, where a person can drop in and say, "My grandma used to grow "such-and-such a variety. Anyone know where I can find it? I want to pick up that tradition myself." That's why I started this forum.
Do please chime in with ideas and suggestions!
I'm chronically overloaded with the work I do. Until recently I'd say I was chronically sleep deprived because of the crazy amount of stuff I attempted to do. I'll spare you the itemized list.
Anyway, why would I start this forum? I already started and moderate Green Country Seed Savers. We have a place to discuss sweet potatoes there. Why start this separate meeting place?
Here are some reasons:
1. More than almost any other crop I know, sweet potatoes probably have the most potential for producing a food source which would actually sustain someone in time of great need.
They are exceedingly reliable and when grown correctly produce a large crop for the space they use.
Sweet potatoes keep exceedingly well. About their only requirement is that they be stored where they don't get chilled. I regularly have good roots for eating 10 or 11 months after harvest.
The entire sweet potato plant makes good food. I can pick greens almost all summer, while I'm waiting on the roots.
Sweet potato vines are relished by certain domestic animals. Our goats and rabbits rejoice at harvest time, as I give them the excess vines.
Sweet potatoes are a very versatile food. We need to deal with recipes soon. Forget the traditional candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (though they are tasty). How about soups, pies, stews, stir fries, breads and, of course, my favorite: just plain baked and eaten skin and all?!
I am dead certain that the sweet potato is exceedingly underutilized, compared to the possibilities.
2. Sweet potatoes could be grown by most people with a little space. They can be grown in containers, as an ornamental, and still produce food
(leaves & roots) . If a person has only a small space to produce food, I cannot think of anything more useful and productive, for the square foot, than the sweet potato. In the case of very reduced space, their vines can even be trained onto a trellis, thus reducing their garden footprint.
3. There is way more diversity in sweet potatoes than 99.99 % gardeners think. They are diverse in the following areas:
Leaf shape and color
Vine length, thickness, color and length.
Growth habit
Flesh color
Moisture content
Sweetness
Flavor and texture
Skin color
Speed to produce a crop (affecting how well a given variety will do at a given latitude and climate)
Adaptation to salinity
Adaptation to type of soil
There are probably other differences which have slipped my mind or of which I am ignorant.
4. Sweet potato varieties are vulnerable. Only last year I learned that there is a technology to preserve their germplasm in vitrio. This is wonderful! However, for varieties to survive long term and be available to the average person, they need to be grown. Sweet potato varieties are actually clones of a single plant. Saved biological seed does not "come true." One cannot depend upon biological seed to maintain a given set of traits. Though they keep well, one cannot stash roots on the shelf, nor in the freezer (like seeds) for years on end. They generally need to be grown every year in order to be preserved. In today's society we have a decreasing number of people who have the stability (stay in one place, etc.) to keep varieties going for years or decades, on their own. They are a passion for me, yet several times in my life I have been through moves/changes which meant that I lost my entire collection. I was fortunate to be able to re-acquire those varieties because I had contact with others who grew them. The fact of the matter is that there are precious few growers maintaining truly rare varieties. From my perspective, it's likely that the number of folk truly preserving more than one or two varieties, and that, for more than one or two years, is shrinking. I know only two people who have had and maintained a large number of varieties. In recent years one of those two, due to personal circumstances, has had to cut way back and cannot offer sweet potatoes at all. The other (Sand Hill Preservation Center) is owned and maintained by a single couple, and that, on top of full time work! Sandhill Preservation Center is a treasure to the seed saving and heritage poultry community, yet so many times I hear criticism because they are not as fast, filling orders as a larger company or that they won't take online payment, etc.
Last year Sandhill Preservation Center suffered an enormous blow, after having set out their entire sweet potato crop. They were hit by a derecho (100 mph straight line wind) which destroyed a significant part of their crop. It didn't just damage it. It destroyed it. They even lost their backups. They are presently trying to hunt down a good many varieties which may be simply lost. If they are lost it's in large part because the seed saving community has taken for granted that "somebody" like them would just have these varieties on hand whenever they should be desired.
5. It is very important that something be done to give endangered varieties more margin. I can think of a number of ways to do this:
A. Get more people growing sweet potatoes. We need more people to be growing and enjoying them.
Encourage lots and lots of gardeners to adopt and maintain various varieties. You've heard the term "different strokes for different folks?" Well, the same is true of sweet potatoes and the people who grow them. There are varieties I'm not that fond of and there are varieties I adore.
There is even a variety I adore which I probably can't grow where I live. Some varieties I am not all that fond of are favorites of some of my customers. So this is a good reason we need a good many individuals to be growing and preserving sweet potatoes. What you don't like, is more likely to get neglected and lost.
Most people don't have enough experience with different varieties to know what their favorite might be. It is a really good thing to get more people growing a number of varieties, to wake them up to the diversity which is out there.
B. Get more gardeners into actually saving and reproducing the sweet potatoes from year to year. My wife's grandparents had just one sweet potato variety, but they kept it going for many years. There is value in this. It gets better when such a gardener makes it known to others what they have and shares with them.
C. Get more gardeners into growing, reproducing and sharing a number of varieties of sweet potatoes. I suspect that most gardeners who experience the diversity of the sweet potato could still be content with just three or four varieties. Once they settle on which ones they enjoy most they could then let others know what they have available. This is how I got into selling slips. I had three varieties and a friend asked if I would sell them any extra slips I might have. And... they asked every year for a couple of years, until it occurred to me that I might as well plan on growing extras for that purpose! I also shared through the Seed Savers Exchange, which is how I met Gary Schuam of Duck Creek Farms.
For years Gary and Glenn Drowns (Sandhill) have helped one another with finding new varieties and recovering those which get lost to natural disaster. Both have helped me to recover varieties I have lost. One year I lost all my varieties and Gary graciously sent me every one of them, plus a couple more. Having a kind of fellowship of sweet potato preservationists is a superb way to increase the resiliency of sweet potatoes!
Finally,
D. Get more gardeners selling sweet potato slips. Even if one just puts up a 3X5" card in the local Farmers' Co-op or feed store, selling slips is a wonderful way to promote the sweet potato as a crop.
1. I am often saddened at what poor quality and low variety is available in main stream garden centers.
2. Selling slips is a wonderful way to educate gardeners in the wonders of sweet potato varieties and propagation. For years I have sold slips via Craigslist. With time I've come to have enough regular clients that I hardly have to advertise. Some drop by to pick up slips, and when they do, we often have great conversations about varieties, growing techniques and recipes! When we visit, it's not uncommon that I'll pull an extra slip or two, of a variety I'm trialing, and present it to a customer, saying, "Here, try this and let me know what you think." One time I received a phone call from a client who sheepishly asked me how I make slips. They wanted to do the same. I suppose they were puzzled by my elation. You see, we must complete the cycle and reproduce those who produce and preserve if we're to actually accomplish anything in terms of actual sweet potato preservation. Selling slips is kind of like beekeeping (which I also do). There is probably room for 100 times more people to keep bees in my area. If more did, everybody, including the bees would benefit.
Conclusion (for now):
We need more Garys, Glenns and Lindas (Glenn's wife and helpmate). We also need more grandmas and grandpas who grow and maintain a single variety. We need more consumers who ask for more varieties, even if they can't grow them. We desperately need younger people to pick up the torch, grow, propagate and share sweet potato varieties and:
We need places where interested people can come, learn and share about this wonderful crop. We need meeting places for those who are interested and/or involved. That's what the Sweet Potato Connection is about. I want this to be a place for folk to learn and encourage others to try, to grow, to maintain and to enjoy sweet potatoes, especially the rarer kinds. We need places like this, where a person can drop in and say, "My grandma used to grow "such-and-such a variety. Anyone know where I can find it? I want to pick up that tradition myself." That's why I started this forum.
Do please chime in with ideas and suggestions!
