Cook a Sweet Potato Day

Roasted sweet potatoes. Анастасия Белоусова / Pixabay.com / 2019 / CC0 1.0

The 22nd of February is Cook A Sweet Potato Day.

Today is a good day to experiment with some unique ways to cook with sweet potatoes. And while you’re at it, you can learn the difference between sweet potatoes and yams — the food industry frequently gets it very wrong!

While there is no such a thing as a superfood, sweet potatoes do pack quite a nutritional wallop.

“Sweet potatoes offer 200 percent of the USDA recommended allowance of Vitamin A, nearly 50 percent of the recommended allowance for vitamin C, and over 400 percent of the recommended daily allowance of beta-carotene. They are also an excellent source of fiber.” ^[1]Sirrine, Rob. November is Sweet Potato Awareness month.  Michigan State University Extension. 23 November 2015. Accessed February 2021 at https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/november_is_sweet_potato_awareness_month

Sweet potatoes are the state vegetable of North Carolina: “The sweet potato was officially designated the State Vegetable by the General Assembly of 1995. (Session Laws, 1995, c. 521).” ^[2]Kemp, Amy and Kelly Agan. State Vegetable of North Carolina: Sweet Potato. NC Government & Heritage Library. 2017. Accessed February 2021 at https://ncpedia.org/symbols/vegetable

More than half the sweet potatoes grown in the United States are grown in North Carolina. Within North Carolina, the biggest sweet potato producing counties are Edgecombe, Johnston,  Nash, Sampson, and Wilson. ^[3]”We grow more than half of all the sweet potatoes in the whole country.” —  Shipman, Matt. Top Vegetables Grown in North Carolina. North Carolina State University News. 19 September 2018. Accessed February 2021 at https://news.ncsu.edu/2018/09/top-vegetables-in-nc/

Vardaman, Mississippi, claims to be the Sweet Potato Capital of the World. Though North Carolina might outproduce them in quantity, they say that North Carolina can’t compete with their quality:

“I was born in Vardaman, Mississippi, the self proclaimed “Sweet Potato Capital of the World.” Since my current home state of North Carolina produces far more sweet potatoes—about as much as Mississippi and the other top-producing states of California and Louisiana combined—it seems that Vardaman should consider relinquishing this title. They maintain, however, that what they lack in quantity, they make up for in quality. In fact, one Vardaman farmer recently reported that visiting farmers from North Carolina took Mason jars of his soil back to North Carolina State University in an attempt to decipher the secret to the silky sweet taste and the smoother, tighter skin of Vardaman-grown sweet potatoes.” ^[4]McGreger, April. What’s the Difference Between Yams and Sweet Potatoes? Birmingham, Alabama: Southern Living Magazine. 1 November 2016. Accessed February 2021 at https://www.southernliving.com/veggies/potatoes/difference-between-yams-and-sweet-potatoes

To celebrate today you could:

• bake a sweet potato;
• make sweet potato fries in your oven or air fryer;
• make sweet potato pie;
• make sweet potato muffins;
• make sweet potato and carrot mash;
• order some sweet potato fries at a restaurant.

#CookASweetPotatoDay

Recipes

• Marshmallow Sweet Potatoes
• Mashed Sweet Potato with Parmesan
• Roasted Root Vegetable Salad
• Sweet Potato and Cranberry Nutbread
• Sweet Potatoes with Brie & Cranberry

Here’s a useful brochure on Cooking with sweet potatoes from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Service.

History

The earliest print reference CooksInfo is aware of to a “Cook a Sweet Potato Day” on the 22nd of February dates from 2015 in Wisconsin:

“Unique and bizarre holidays on the calendar this week include: Feb. 22: Cook a Sweet Potato Day” (Vander Velden, Julie. 10 things you should know before starting your week. Kenosha, Wisconsin: Kenosha News. Sunday, 15 February 2015. Page B1, col. 4.)

In 2005, Professor Jack Osman from Towson University in Maryland said that he had succeeded in campaigning for “an official Pennsylvania Senate ruling declaring National Sweet Potato Day” to be the  fourth Saturday of September. ^[5]Graybill, Mary Ellen. A local celebration of the sweet potato. Baltimore, Maryland: The Baltimore Sun. 23 October 2005. Accessed February 2021 at http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2005-10-23/news/0510140240_1_sweet-potatoes-towson-university-potato-day

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Legislative Journal. Tuesday, 20 September 2005. 189th of the General Assembly. No. 52. Page 724.

Sources

Local schools celebrate National Cook a Sweet Potato Day. The Warren Record. Warrenton, North Carolina. 7 March 2018. Accessed February 2021 at https://www.warrenrecord.com/news/article_2c5e2e9e-220b-11e8-bb08-2354c58f9695.html