The sweet potato has been an important part of holiday dinners for many years. Although sweet potatoes are available in grocery stores year-round, the boxes of these freshly harvested vegetables at roadside stands in the Miss-Lou are hard to resist.

Native to Peru and Central America, and some islands of the South Pacific, it&8217;s reported that Native Americans already grew sweet potatoes in 1492 when Christopher Columbus reached our continent. In fact, some scientists believe the vegetables were part of prehistoric times. Although some controversy exists regarding the history of this vegetable, such accounts would make one believe sweetpotatoes are also native to the United States. Columbus was responsible for introducing sweetpotatoes to Europe. Louis XV and Empress Josephine made the vegetable popular in France briefly in the late 18th and early 19th century due to their fondness of it.

George Washington was a sweet potato farmer before he was president. In the early 20th century, George Washington Carver, an Alabama scientist, was responsible for educating farmers about sweetpotatoes as a crop to grow in soil that was depleted of nutrients from cotton farming. Carver discovered over 100 ways to use sweetpotatoes such as in flour, synthetic rubber, vinegar, glue for postage stamps and ink. He was responsible for showing the world just how versatile and important this ancient vegetable could be.

Today we know that sweet potatoes are an extremely healthy addition to our diets and should be enjoyed throughout the year. In fact, as far as nutrition is concerned, the sweet potato is ranked as the number one vegetable. A medium sized sweetpotato (about 12 ounces) eaten with the skin on provides four times the daily recommended allowance of beta carotene, which is converted by our bodies to vitamin A. You would need 23 cups of broccoli to equal the amount of beta carotene in just one cup of sweet potatos. Other benefits include high fiber, potassium, calcium, vitamin C and magnesium. In addition, this naturally sweet food has only 117 calories and one-tenth of a fat gram.

Related to the morning glory, sweet potatoes grow as vines with purple flowers. They are one of the most important food crops in the world. Estimates are that more than 130 million tons of sweet potatoes are produced annually.

The portion of the vegetable that we eat is known as a tuberous root. Many varieties are grown, and sweet potatoes are available in various shapes, sizes and colors. In the northern part of the United States, the &8220;dry fleshed,&8221; firmer type of sweet potato is popular, while in the south, the &8220;moist fleshed,&8221; softer forms are the most desirable. These classifications refer the experience felt in the mouth when eating a cooked sweet potato. &8216;Beauregard,&8217; a moist fleshed cultivar developed by the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, is believed to make up 70 percent of the crop in the United States.

Sweet potato acreage is ideally planted in late April or early May in the Miss-Lou, with harvesting beginning in the middle of August and lasting into December.

The earlier the crop is planted, the greater the yields are. Plant your own sweet potato patch next spring for your very own harvest about 120 days after setting out slips (cuttings). After a few weeks of curing to make their flavor extra sweet, you&8217;ll be able to make a casserole with your homegrown ingredients to share with your family when you give thanks in 2006.

Traci Maier

can be reached at

ratmaier@bellsouth.net

.