Last Spring, after the Sweet Potatoes went into the ground, the folks from Terra Firma asked how our planting was doing. They were only getting about a 30% take of their planting, Jose said that was about where we were also. I looked at the field about 2 months ago and saw beautiful, full, lush plants. Sweet Potatoes started coming in (always a very exciting time for me because I LOVE our’s) and they were huge!
As a ‘non-farmer’ farmer, it looked like the crop was great, but then I started wondering why they were so giant. I called Paul at Terra Firma to ask him how their’s were doing. They had plowed their field some months ago; it wasn’t worth keeping them. He explained that when there is the space, the plants on top will grow big and lush and fill out the field. The sweet potatoes also grow too big and you end up with a bunch of honkers.
A bit of a “duh” moment since that makes perfect sense. I realize there are so many things we take for granted, and there is just so much to learn. But the fact is with every bit of information we do learn it means we look at other things around the farm a little bit differently, and as time goes on, the learning becomes easier. In the meantime, I am grateful we have our delicious sweet potatoes, honkers or not, and am really looking forward to some Sweet Potato Pie.