A Thrifty Tradition

Remember that scene in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett digs some kind of vegetable out of the dirt, eats it, throws it up, and then proclaims, "I'll never go hungry again!" Well, I'm pretty sure it was a dirt-covered sweet potato she devoured right then and there. I know, I know. Some of you Gone with the Wind experts know exactly what it was and you're correcting me right now. But what root vegetable could be more southern and carry more tradition than a sweet potato?

And that is exactly why my family (especially my parents), since moving to North Carolina, have developed a tradition of loading up the non-school age grandkids, trekking out to some nice farmer's sweet potato field, and harvesting the leftover sweet potatoes every fall.

Not really. Although it HAS become a tradition, it has nothing to do with some southern nostalgia of the sweet potato. In actuality, we're just really cheap. My husband prefers to call it "frugal." Call it what you will, I like free food. And, yes, I did blog about this last winter, but my mom and I put a new twist on it this year. I talked her into helping me can the sweet potatoes this year.

So, they went from this...
To this...
To this...
...To this. It doesn't get more farm to table than that!

(There really are sweet potatoes under those marshmallows. All I had on hand were campfire marshmallows!)

What surprised my mom and me was how easy canning sweet potatoes is! I baked half my potatoes and boiled the other half (skins on). The skins slipped right off the boiled potatoes. Then all we had to do was quarter them, pack the jars, put a little fresh squeezed orange juice in each jar, pour boiling syrup (2 parts water to 1 part sugar) over them, and then process them. And they're good! Making Daniel's Favorite Sweet Potatoes took no time at all when all I had to do was pour them out of the jar, spice them up, whip them, and then throw some (huge) marshmallows on top! So if you're interested in canning (just about anything), but especially some free sweet potatoes, here's the website to check out.

P.S. I'm not sure why, but my boys will eat vegetables twice as well if they've helped pick them or they even just know that Grandma and I canned them. Whatever the case, it works for me!

*This post is linked to Frugal Fridays