How Sweet Potatoes Are Harvested

Ok, sweet potatoes aren’t harvested; they’re dug. But “How Sweet Potatoes Are Dug” just doesn’t quite sound grammatically correct, though it might be. And ‘dug’ is the past tense for dig, which is how one gets sweet potatoes out of the ground.

This kind of terminology is one of the things I’ve been introduced to as I’ve gotten to know sweet potato growers over the years. I don’t always pay attention to the fact that some of the lingo of East Texas farmers has snuck into my usual way of talking about them and with them, until someone asks me to clarify something.

So, sweet potatoes are dug. Not usually by hand if the grower can help it. There are machines for that, of course. On a small farm where only a few rows or a couple of acres have been planted, a grower can simply use a plow to turn up the dirt in the middle of the row, which exposes the potatoes.

Oh yeah. Uh, sweet potatoes grow on a vine and the potatoes develop underground, like a white potato does. They are related to the morning glory family. They are biologically different from a yam. No, really, they are. Sweet potatoes and yam (real yams) are from different plant families. See here. 

Ok…back to how the potatoes are dug. When growers plant many acres, like the folks I’ve known in East Texas, they have a digger and they “bar-off” the rows. First, the vines are mowed down just a bit. Then an attachment on a tractor is taken through the rows. It creates definite wide rows so the tractor driver knows where to place the plow to reach the potatoes.

The digger is basically a plow on a trailer that is pulled by a tractor. As the tractor goes along, the plow (sometimes there are two) at the front of the trailer digs into the soil and loosens the vine and the potatoes. Just up from the plow is a metal chain conveyor belt that is down at the level of the soil being loosened. As the potatoes are disturbed from the ground, they are carried up the conveyor belt to the main part of the trailer. Going up the conveyor the soil and vines fall through the metal chain belt. On the trailer are real people who sort the potatoes as they go by. One person picks out all the No. 1’s, another person the No. 2’s. Still another person will pick out the Jumbo’s. Often the grower will also collect potatoes that can be sold to the canneries. These “canners” are potatoes that aren’t pretty and aren’t necessarily small (sometimes they’re huge!), but they will make great canned sweet taters. You know, the kind that are sweetened and usually have some cinnamon added – candied yams, as they are sometimes called – though they aren’t really yams.

So, on the trailer stand the people picking out the potatoes as they go by. The potatoes are placed in large wooden crates that when full hold about 1,000lbs each. This is skilled labor, even if it doesn’t look like it. The different grades of potatoes – No. 1, No. 2 – have specific characteristics that are standardized in the industry. To be able to pick out potatoes with specific characteristics as they go by on a conveyor belt and be accurate takes skill.

In a good year, a grower will get 20,000/acre of potatoes. I think that is for No. 1’s and No.2’s together, but it’s been so long since I’ve talked to a farmer in a good year that I’ve forgotten. The growers I have worked with usually plant about 50-100 acres. Most often they own some portion of the land they plant on, but the majority of it is leased.

Once the potatoes are dug and placed in the wooded crates, the crates are put on a truck and taken to the potato house or potato barn (usually just a few miles away) where they are stored to cure. After a week or two of curing, the potatoes are washed and boxed for sale. The curing process – which is really just storing the potatoes in the right temperature and humidity range – thickens the skins slightly and allows the sugars in the potatoes to sweeten.

The potatoes going to the cannery are simply kept in the large wooden crates until the big trick comes to pick them up. There is a cool feature on the forklift that allows the crate to be lifted and then dumped into the open top of the truck. To do this, the forks on the forklift actually rotate.

So that’s how the potatoes are dug. It’s really a wonderful experience to see how all of it works. Farms like these are small businesses that may have an ancient truck that hauls the potatoes from the field to the barn, but they some great technology to help them along the way. You just never know, though, when your sweet potato grower also has a Master’s degree in Agribusiness, even though he tells you, “They’s a lot of potatoes out there!”

Sweet Potatoes

Did you know that it’s sweet potato time in North East Texas? Yep! Sweet potatoes! They are planted in May and harvested beginning about the middle or end of September. The fourth Saturday in October should be a big weekend for my non-profit organization. But it’s not this year. Sweet potatoes have been the crop for gleaning in the fall. But they aren’t this year. They are easy to glean because they can stay on the ground in the field for a week or more after being dug (harvested) without suffering much damage. This means that we can schedule volunteers to come out to the field on the weekend when it’s convenient for them.

But times are changing for Texas-grown sweet potatoes. Wood, Upshur, Van Zandt, and Rains counties have been where the sweet potatoes were grown. Upshur County began losing growers first. The others have followed. The last several years, the weather has been the main problem. But really, there are other problems that growers face that sometimes makes planting impossible – that’s for another post.

When I started working as a gleaning coordinator in 2003, the little community of Golden, TX in Wood County had six sweet potato growers that I could name without thinking about it. (There were a few more; I just really didn’t know them.) They each grew 50-100 acres of sweet potatoes and could count on 20,000 lbs per acre yield. The potatoes were sold to wholesale distributors, grocery stores, individuals, and canneries (for the ugly potatoes). These guys were even featured as one of Oprah’s Favorite Things in 2004-5 (http://www.sweetpotatoblessings.com/oprah-video/oprah.htm). For a short period of time, these growers box and shipped sweet potatoes around the country because of Oprah’s show, but they couldn’t keep up with the demand. Of those six growers in Golden, one 1 is left growing sweet potatoes.

One farmer in Emory, TX has been growing vegetables his whole life. His father was the tomato grower. As a young man, this grower used to drive to the Dallas Farmer’s Market at midnight to get in line to get a spot to sell tomatoes the next morning. He’s grown cucumbers and a few other crops. But he’s grown sweet potatoes the longest. That might be in jeopardy, though after the last several years.

Gilmer, TX still has its Yamboree and Golden, TX still has it’s Sweet Potato Festival. These two areas have very few people who are still growing sweet potatoes, but they continue to celebrate their heritage.

What does it mean that we are losing local growers? How does this affect the quality of the sweet potatoes we eat? How does it affect the local communities that have for so long relied on these crops for a significant part of their economy? 

We may not think about these things very often, but they are important issues to be aware of, regardless of where you live!

Rural Food

Geez! I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted anything! I've had several blog entries that I started and then stopped for one reason or another. So going back through my ideas folder, I found this one. This was actually written back in June, before the heat and drought of this summer took everything from the ground.

I talked to a pastor friend of mine yesterday who had been moved from a suburban church setting to a very rural one. She said, “I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately!”

“Really?” I replied.

“Yes, I understand gleaning on a totally different level now! I’ve been digging potatoes with one of my old guys [her words not mine]. We’re in the third poorest county in Texas, and we’ve got food rotting in the ground!”

We talked briefly about the issues she was facing. I was so surprised by what she was saying that I didn’t even think to ask what kind of potatoes or any other details. I know the area she’s in, and it is very rural Northeast Texas. It used to be a strong agricultural area, but all of that has changed.

In just a few minutes she and I had touched on some really big issues that face rural areas. With the industrialization of our food system, communities that have traditionally relied on agriculture as their main industry have fallen into poverty. They face one of the hidden battles and ironies of rural poverty: food deserts where residents don’t have access to a real grocery store. Even though the area previously grew crops of some sort (corn, wheat, cotton, potatoes), they haven’t transitioned to growing fruits and vegetables. And there is no system in place to provide locally grown produce for that area.

There is also no system in place for redeveloping this land for food production, for deconstructing rural food deserts. This particular county has food insecurity rate of 20% (page 406 if you go look at the linked report), and these residents need an extra $466 a year to have "just enough food." 

Not long after I had this conversation, I was in that same area at a workshop about Farm-to-School programs, what they are and how they work. Farm-to-school consists of classroom education (taste tests, cooking demos & practice), school gardens, nutrition education, and purchasing food from local growers. I basically knew the information, but I was there to meet the food service managers from the various districts. This group quickly understood how a relationship with a school district and a farmer would work. These are small school districts in an agricultural area. They get it. Some of them have family members that could potentially provide some of the food for school lunches. But there is currently no system in place to make this happen.

The actual conversations with the food service managers are content for another post. It seems to me that an agricultural area of Texas that has food insecurity should be an oxymoron. But it's not. For me, this is a sure sign that there is something broken in our system.

While there is currently no solution in place for these issues, there are solutions. They will take time, education, and some money. But the parts are there. We just need the opportunity to explore how they will come together. I look forward to the solutions!

Food Balance

This week I’ve read my second article about why the food movement is not elitist. This recent article is really quite good and touches on the issues that go beyond what appears on foodie dinner plates – environmental impact, worker’s right issues, everything. Basically, this writer says, We have an unsustainable food system and it effects everyone. I totally agree! The food system needs to change. But what I don’t hear is anyone talking about the fact that the majority of the food movement is simply trying to go back to real food – the kind that grows from the ground, the kind that developed on this earth without the interference of scientific methodology, the kind that all of us can grow in our yards if we chose, the kind that doesn’t pose so many health risks. You know the type - the kind of food that has real flavor.

It’s not food that only some should have access to. Every single person should have access to clean, healthy food. Yeah, it’s kind of going back to the way things used to be. But there is, for me, something intangibly real and spiritually significant to a food system that works with the land and not in attempt to conquer the land. A system that makes use of natural processes, cycles, predators, and collaborators to create food that helps us be fully who we are intended to be. I don’t think that a person has to be religious to understand that there is a way in which the world is supposed to function, be in balance with itself. We as humans do not fully understand that way, yet we try to control it anyway, as if we are somehow greater than the system we don’t understand. Our current conventional food system operates in this “we know everything” model, and it’s not working.

The grounding of the food movement when you peel back the layers is about resetting the balance, living with the Earth to produce the abundance of food (and of life) that is possible if we just let go of a little bit of control and learn and marvel in the mystery that is, as James Taylor says, this “wet, green one that we live on”.

Chickens...

So a friend of mine told me I needed to update my blog.

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “What should I write about?”

“Chickens.”

“Ok. What should I say about chickens?”

“Umm… I don’t know. I just love chickens.”

Ok then, here goes.

Chickens are really amazing animals. They’re not always the smartest, yet they know when it’s time to go in to roost each night. Some breeds are very pretty while others just aren’t that cute.

Chickens are not vegetarians. So when you see eggs in the store that say they are cage-free and vegetarian, know that the chickens who laid those eggs were not allowed to be real chickens. In their natural barnyard or field habitat, chickens eat bugs; thus, they are carnivorous. If you have a grasshopper problem bring in a flock of chickens and they will be in hog heaven. Er, uh, I guess that would be chicken heaven. You can also grow worms and things for your chickens to eat. Mobile chicken coops are the bomb!

Hens lay eggs with no help from the rooster. So unless one needs to multiply one’s chicken flock, no rooster is needed. Many cities have ordinances that prohibit roosters but not chickens, as does the city where I live. But you will still hear the occasional rooster. I know I do.

Roosters can be mean and bossy, but a good rooster is one who protects his ladies. These often-beautiful birds have been known to distribute the best worms evenly and fairly among the hens, knowing whose turn it is for the next tasty treat.

Did you know that real eggs – often called yard eggs, free range eggs, or pastured eggs – have better nutrient content than the ones mass produced at factory farms? And they are prettier and more flavorful. I purchased a carton of 18 eggs from a farmer friend one Saturday. I only paid $3 for the carton! Which is amazing, by the way, for that kind of eggs. She said they weighed the 12-count versus the 18-count, and they weighed the same because some of the eggs in the 18-count were so small. They were very cute! They were also multi-colored. There were greenish ones, and blueish ones, white, and brown ones all in the same carton. And they were tasty!

Chickens may not have the biggest brains in the animal kingdom, but they are an important part of our diets for both their eggs and their meat. We really should not be raising them by the 10’s of 1,000’s in huge barns and feeding them yucky food. We should be spreading them around the countryside and in the cities. Families should be able to have their own chickens to provide eggs and meat (if they choose). Chickens are very inexpensive pets! Their feed costs a whole lot less than dog food, and they keep the bug population low.

Chickens are cool.

Food, Eating, Reality

Last night I was out to dinner with a good friend.  We went to a nice, casual restaurant that offers fresh foods, not processed.  You get to select all the stuff you want in your bowl and they cook it up for you.  Yeah, you may know the place.  It's a great place to eat, and it is a better choice when eating out.  I, however, am just back from an organic farming/gardening conference, actually two in a row.  While standing in line viewing the food choices, I had to convince myself that I really could eat what was in front of me.  All of the things that I know about our current food system came to mind as I looked over the selection.

I couldn't help myself. I said, "Sometimes I really hate coming back from these conferences."

"Why?" my friend asked.

"Because I know all the things that are wrong with our food system."

"I thought this was one of the things that is right with the food system."

"Not really. I can tell you something that's wrong with nearly everything here."

We went on with preparing our dinner.  Once back at the table and after a few stories of the day, my friend brought up the previous subject.

 "So what is wrong with our food system?" he innocently asks.  This is not someone who is uneducated about food.  He even grows some of his own in his backyard.  So I began, hoping not to make him want to quit eating, but I had to be honest.

"Well, the meat was all raised with antibiotics, hormones, and genetically modified grain, if they're even supposed to eat grain at all.  The vegetables were sprayed with pesticides, probably grown with fertilizers, and picked by people who were probably not paid well.  And it all traveled a long distance to get here."

"Oh, yeah."  What else does one say to all of that? Each one of the things I mentioned has a myriad of issues attached to it.  My friend when on to comment that he expected food prices to rise.  I assumed he meant because of the fact that fuel prices are currently higher.  I replied that we still pay a lower percentage of our income on food than any other nation in the world.  

We have a broken and unjust food system.  Some people know it and do what they can to eat in more just and healthy ways.  Others don't know. Still others see the issues but feel helpless to do anything.  I have spent my time in the helpless category.  But I've learned that there are things we can all do. I still get really frustrated.  Change comes slowly.

Two thoughts to leave you with for now...

"Policy is nothing more than an expression of our values." - Mark Winne, food policy guru


So what do we value?


"Conspicuous consumption of limited resources has yet to be widely accepted as a spiritual error, or even bad manners. Our culture is not unacquainted with the idea of food as a spiritually loaded commodity. We're just particular about which spiritual arguments we'll accept as valid for declining certain foods." 
--Barbara Kingslover in Animal, Vegetable, Mineral