Post by macmex on Oct 9, 2021 12:50:30 GMT
Depending on your location, September or October is probably the time you want to harvest sweet potatoes. Keep in mind, there is ever a point at which a sweet potato has actually matured. They simply reach a good usable size and one digs them. Otherwise, if left in the ground they will either continue to grow and make more and larger roots, or, more often, cold weather will come and they will be damaged or destroyed by the cold.
Cold is the enemy of sweet potatoes. Cool is not their friend either. So, when I detect the first cool nights in late summer or early fall I want to start harvesting the crop.
Another point: Once there are some cool nights, there's not much point in leaving them in the ground. The plants basically stop growing.
Ideally one should dig sweet potato roots while there are still some good warm days (albeit cooler nights) ahead. This makes curing the roots easier. "Curing" is simply the necessary process of helping the newly harvested root adjust to its new condition and be ready for consumption. Most of the time, when I read an online comment about how someone dug their sweet potatoes, cooked some, and found that they were not sweet, I know they didn't cure them. Those roots didn't get any age on them before being cooked. I'm not sure if aging is distinct from curing, so I'm going to include both together here.
To cure the roots, one should dig them and then keep them, relatively undisturbed, in a warm, fairly moist environment. I've read instructions which say to keep them between 80-90 F at 80% humidity. Never in my life have I measured humidity while curing my roots, but I do seek heat. I don't mind if the roots get even warmer than 90 F. If circumstances allow, it may be possible to dig the roots and lay them on top of the turned soil, leaving them out for two or three days. I've heard of many who do this.
I've done it, though I discontinued this practice due to rodent damage which occurred. Most years I have dug them, boxed them and set them on our enclosed sun porch for half a week. The sun porch protects some from night time coolness and gets up into the 90s, easily, during the day. I have primarily used sturdy cardboard boxes to contain the roots.
After a couple of days on the sun porch I then move the boxes to a more permanent location, indoors, where temps shouldn't drop below 50 F. One year I simply stacked the boxes about 15' from our wood stove, where winter temps were sometimes over 90 F, and ... those were very "happy roots." They kept great!
So that's curing. I'm not sure if aging isn't also part of the curing process. Leaving off aging gives much the same results... poor flavor. It has been my observation that some varieties of sweet potato are quite ready to eat at 3 weeks time, after harvesting and storage. In fact, most are. There are some, however, which need more time. Two which come to mind are Grand Asia and White Eclipse. These varieties, if eaten soon after harvest (even three weeks afterwards) elicit a profound "bleh." They're not disagreeable but neither do they taste very good. If, however, I cook some after Thanksgiving (better yet Christmas) then their flavor is at its best. I can remember eating a Morado, once, while in Mexico, and thinking "Huh, I thought this kind of sweet potato was much better than this. That root didn't have enough age on it. Other times I would eat one and think, "Wow! This is amazing!" The "amazing root" had been stored for a while.
This year I'm trying something new with curing. I have an empty greenhouse which gets quite warm during the day. I've been digging only about a five gallon bucket of roots, per day, so each day I've spread those roots on the shelves in the greenhouse They're fairly safe from rodents and protected from any cold rain which might come. After four days of harvest, today I'll box these roots and stash them in the house. I hope to dig a good many more today, laying them on the greenhouse shelves to cure.
Cold is the enemy of sweet potatoes. Cool is not their friend either. So, when I detect the first cool nights in late summer or early fall I want to start harvesting the crop.
Another point: Once there are some cool nights, there's not much point in leaving them in the ground. The plants basically stop growing.
Ideally one should dig sweet potato roots while there are still some good warm days (albeit cooler nights) ahead. This makes curing the roots easier. "Curing" is simply the necessary process of helping the newly harvested root adjust to its new condition and be ready for consumption. Most of the time, when I read an online comment about how someone dug their sweet potatoes, cooked some, and found that they were not sweet, I know they didn't cure them. Those roots didn't get any age on them before being cooked. I'm not sure if aging is distinct from curing, so I'm going to include both together here.
To cure the roots, one should dig them and then keep them, relatively undisturbed, in a warm, fairly moist environment. I've read instructions which say to keep them between 80-90 F at 80% humidity. Never in my life have I measured humidity while curing my roots, but I do seek heat. I don't mind if the roots get even warmer than 90 F. If circumstances allow, it may be possible to dig the roots and lay them on top of the turned soil, leaving them out for two or three days. I've heard of many who do this.
I've done it, though I discontinued this practice due to rodent damage which occurred. Most years I have dug them, boxed them and set them on our enclosed sun porch for half a week. The sun porch protects some from night time coolness and gets up into the 90s, easily, during the day. I have primarily used sturdy cardboard boxes to contain the roots.
After a couple of days on the sun porch I then move the boxes to a more permanent location, indoors, where temps shouldn't drop below 50 F. One year I simply stacked the boxes about 15' from our wood stove, where winter temps were sometimes over 90 F, and ... those were very "happy roots." They kept great!
So that's curing. I'm not sure if aging isn't also part of the curing process. Leaving off aging gives much the same results... poor flavor. It has been my observation that some varieties of sweet potato are quite ready to eat at 3 weeks time, after harvesting and storage. In fact, most are. There are some, however, which need more time. Two which come to mind are Grand Asia and White Eclipse. These varieties, if eaten soon after harvest (even three weeks afterwards) elicit a profound "bleh." They're not disagreeable but neither do they taste very good. If, however, I cook some after Thanksgiving (better yet Christmas) then their flavor is at its best. I can remember eating a Morado, once, while in Mexico, and thinking "Huh, I thought this kind of sweet potato was much better than this. That root didn't have enough age on it. Other times I would eat one and think, "Wow! This is amazing!" The "amazing root" had been stored for a while.
This year I'm trying something new with curing. I have an empty greenhouse which gets quite warm during the day. I've been digging only about a five gallon bucket of roots, per day, so each day I've spread those roots on the shelves in the greenhouse They're fairly safe from rodents and protected from any cold rain which might come. After four days of harvest, today I'll box these roots and stash them in the house. I hope to dig a good many more today, laying them on the greenhouse shelves to cure.