Finally, after about 4-5 months of planting sweet potatoes on the raised mound created from extra soil dump from an adjacent pond being dug, it’s time for harvest. This harvest is actually long overdue, resulting in quite a couple of rotten and bad sweet potatoes when we cleared the bed for replanting.
The soil (dug from adjacent pond) is poor/rocky and just fertilised with two rounds of chicken dung and ashes. Overall, the harvest is okay from this small space. Regardless, at the end of the day, nothing beats eating that which you’ve grown yourself.
The location of this raised sweet potato bed is on a small section of slope where the soil is held back by logs. We had to be careful when digging through without damaging the tubers and at the same time, prevent erosion. It’s not exactly the smartest thing to do – I’d admit – planting tubers on slopes but it’s an experiment to see how things go with regards to soil preservation over time. Furthermore, we don’t have enough flat land to plant. Moreover, this chunk of soil was dump here when the adjacent pond was dug. So, it’s all about making the best use of space, time and resources.
We managed to pull out about 20.4 Kg of sweet potatoes from this small bed alone. Minus all the rotten and bad ones, and then giving some away, I would still have enough to get me by for many many weeks with breakfasts, snacks and the occasional lunch taken care of. Unfortunately, this first batch is not for sale and only for own consumption. It’s just a lot of work to filter between the good and bad ones. Hence, it’s much easier to eat everything myself and ensure the next batch is well taken care of for sale.
Together with the rotten ones, all sweet potato skins that have been removed when consumed will be recycled to feed my composting worms or BSF larvae. It’s all back to the soil and these high energy resource would be much favoured by these voracious eaters in turning waste to nutrient-rich fertilisers.
Now, the fun part – eating! Apart from boiling and eating them mashed as is, or just as an accompaniment in desserts, I prefer to slice (not too thin, otherwise it’s like crackers; not too bad after all, depending on your mood/taste buds) and roast them for breakfast or snack. My son loves them very much. They’re very nutritious and high in fibre. As such, having just a little would keep you really full.
