Sweet Potato popularity continues to grow

The sweet potato digger at the LSU AgCenter Sweet Potato Research Station at Chase uses a blade that digs up the potatoes and walks the potatoes up a conveyer while shaking off the dirt to a place where six people then put the potatoes in bins. (Photo by Mary Ann Van Osdell)

"Festive Holiday Yams" in the "Serving Louisiana" cookbook available from the LSU AgCenter.

Freshly harvested sweet potatoes. (Photo by Mary Ann Van Osdell)

Harvest has begun in Louisiana for one of our most popular crops – the sweet potato. Louisiana farmers produce about 5 million bushels a year. The total value to the Louisiana economy in 2007 was more than $110 million.

Louisiana boasts the only sweet potato research station in the country – a 307-acre facility in Chase. The Sweet Potato Research Station will host a field day Aug. 14. Registration will begin at 8 a.m. and field tours at 9 a.m. The event wraps up with a lunch served at noon.

Read more about the field day. 

View TV spot about growing sweet potatoes in Louisiana.

‘Louisiana Yams’
The correct answer to the question, “Is it a yam or a sweet potato?” is “yes and no,” says Tara Smith, LSU AgCenter sweet potato extension specialist.

“The terms yam and sweet potato are used interchangeably in the U.S. markets when referring to sweet potatoes,” Smith said. “But true yams and sweet potatoes are actually unrelated and two completely different plant species.

“The term yam as it relates to sweet potatoes was coined several decades ago by Louisiana growers,” Smith said. “It was used as a marketing tool to help distinguish their softer, sweeter and moister varieties from the drier varieties traditionally grown on the East Coast.”

To add further confusion, there is also a practice of referring to fresh sweet potatoes as “sweet potatoes” and cured sweet potatoes as “yams.”

“Freshly harvested sweet potatoes are referred to as green, and the sweet potatoes fresh off the turn row aren’t as sweet, soft and moist as cured sweet potatoes,” Smith said. “Sweet potatoes are sweetest when baked if they are allowed to cure six to eight weeks following harvest.”

Freshly harvested sweet potatoes are shipped to market beginning in August until November. Those shipped for the Thanksgiving market and thereafter are generally cured, meaning they have been harvested and stored long enough for them to develop the desired flavor and texture when baked.

New Variety 'Evangeline'
Although the Beauregard sweet potato continues to be the most popular variety grown in Louisiana, a new variety, Evangeline, was released by the LSU AgCenter in 2007. Several acres of Evangeline seed were planted at the Sweet Potato Station in 2007, and many Louisiana producers are evaluating the variety on a limited commercial scale in 2008. 

One of the more unique projects at the station is the planting in greenhouses of approximately 30,000 true seed from the breeding nursery in Baton Rouge. Each of these seedlings is a potential new variety.

Eat Sweet Potatoes
They’re good for you. They’re low-calorie and loaded with beta-carotene. Read "Sweet Potatoes Make Meals Colorful, Nutritious."

(This AgCenter Lead was updated on Aug. 6, 2008, by Linda Benedict.)

The LSU AgCenter is one of 11 institutions of higher education in the Louisiana State University System. Headquartered in Baton Rouge, it provides educational services in every parish and conducts research that contributes to the economic development of the state. The LSU AgCenter does not grant degrees nor benefit from tuition increases. The LSU AgCenter plays an integral role in supporting agricultural industries, enhancing the environment, and improving the quality of life through its 4-H youth, family and community programs.