Mother Earth News_December_2016_2017

The Gardener’s Table

H

aving access to stored root

vegetables gives a sense of

comfort to the gardener-cook.

There they are, always ready to bulk up

a meal with their earthy flavors. But

sometimes we long for the wide vari-

ety the garden yielded in summer, and

then it’s time to try some new storage

crops that are popular in cooking but

not often grown at home. How about

planting a bed of sweet potatoes? And,

for a gourmet treat, a row of shallots?

Both are easy to grow and easy to keep,

since neither requires (or does well in)

the moist cold of a root cellar. They

even pair well in cooking — one luxu-

riously sweet and the other pungent,

with a subtle flavor all its own.

Sustaining

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are one of the most

nutritious and sustaining foods you

can grow. They’re not related to the

usual “Irish” potatoes. Nor are they

yams, as the bright-orange varieties are

sometimes called. (The dark-skinned,

white-fleshed Japanese yams sold in

markets are sweet and tasty but not

commonly grown in U.S. gardens.)

To succeed with sweet potatoes,

choose a spacious section of your gar-

den that hasn’t been heavily amended

with manure. The soil should be mod-

erately fertile for the tubers to plump

up, but too much nitrogen can lead

to lush, leafy vines and the skinny,

underdeveloped tubers that I jokingly

call “fingerling sweet potatoes.” Don’t

Easy to grow and store, these roots pair well when

tossed into decadent dishes to warm up cold days.

Story and photos

by Barbara Damrosch

p 10-14 Gardeners Table_c.indd 11 10/4/16 10:14 AM