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!