There is a difference between a sweet potato and a yam. They aren’t even related yet sweet potatoes are often mistakenly referred to as yams. Sweet potatoes are actually the root of a morning glory vine. A yam is the tuber of a vine grown in Central and South America.

Yams are quite toxic if eaten raw. Sweet potatoes are a good eaten raw and I know for a fact that they will give you a stomach ache if you eat too many. But they are not toxic.

Somehow the word candied just seems to pair with yam. Oh, well, henceforth, it will be Candied Sweet Potatoes around here. Maybe someone should ask the USDA why they require the word yam to accompany sweet potato on package labeling.

When I was growing up on the farm here at Big Mill we grew lots of sweet potatoes.  My father’s favorite was Hayman, an heirloom sweet potato. They are pale green in color and produce fewer potatoes per acre, but locals declare they taste better.

Everyone saved seed potatoes so we never had to buy the plants. We raised acres of sweet potatoes and folks came from all over to buy my father’s Hayman potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are harvested or dug in the fall. After we dug the potatoes they were cured with a low heat. The potato house is my favorite of all the barns here at Big Mill Bed & Breakfast.

I do believe the Hayman sweet potatoes are sweeter.  

This old Dodge farm truck hauled bushels of sweet potatoes to the potato house (right of truck). Chloe is sitting on the truck. The goat really did eat the windshield wipers.

Sweet Potato Fries

• 2 large or 4 small red sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. Slice each sweet potato into large steak fries. Spread on a cookie sheet in a single layer, leaving a space between each fry. Toss with the oil. Sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and turn each fry. Return to the oven and bake 15 more minutes or until the fries ae tender and crisp. If you want the fries to be crispier, bake longer.

Serve hot. Oh, these are good!

Yield: 3 servings

Heirloom Hayman sweet potatoes have a lighter colored skin and a pale green flesh. 

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When I was growing up here on the farm in North Carolina, one of the most fun things to do was to pick berries, either blueberries that we called huckleberries, or blackberries.

(I only grew up in the summer…there are no fun stories about winter.) Barney and I would get on our bicycles and go as far away as five miles, all on dirt roads.

The only mishap would be a good case of red bugs, town folks called them chiggers, but they are miserable by either name.

Mother would make jams, pies, cobblers and ice cream with these wonderful wild berries. The blueberries that grew wild around here were small, low-bush berries and they grew in the edge of the woods. The blackberries grew in the ditches and sadly, I never see them anymore. I don’t see the wild blueberries either, so I planted some in my yard by an old pine tree stump.

The blueberry bushes that we have here at Big Mill are the high-bush variety, reaching way over my head. Each year I position a step ladder in amongst the bushes and leave it there for the entire season. I also place Earl, an inflatable snake in the bushes too. His job is to deter some of the birds. Fat chance! He does scare Big Mill B&B guests sometimes.

The blueberry is native to North America and they are one of only a few blue foods on all the earth. This tiny berry is gaining respect among folks who want to stay healthy, since it is a great source of antioxidants.

So blueberries are good for you…Isn’t it great that they taste so good?

Blueberry Jam…This jam is gorgeous. I almost hate to eat it.

4 pints fresh blueberries
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
7 cups sugar
½ teaspoon butter, to reduce foaming (optional)
2 pouches liquid fruit pectin (6 ounces total)

Don’t double the recipe! I don’t know why, but it will fail. If Irma in The Joy of Cooking says, "Don’t double," then I won’t even try it.

Fresh-picked, blueberries, with some of the berries not totally ripe make the best jam. So if you are able to pick your own and make the jam immediately, it will be worth it. My blueberries are growing right outside my kitchen window, so they are very fresh.

Put half of the berries in an enamel or stainless cooking pot and crush the berries, making juice. Stir in the remaining berries, the lemon zest and lemon juice. Add the sugar and butter and bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Pay careful attention to the pot. It will boil over in a heartbeat and you don’t know what a mess is until you boil over blueberry jam.

While the berries are seriously boiling, quickly add the fruit pectin and stir for exactly one minute. Remove from heat and put in sterilized jars, following canning directions.

Yield: 10 half pints plus a wee jar for tasting.

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To me, summers at Big Mill are about the night. The air is soft. Sitting in a wicker swing, for a few moments all is quiet. Then the sounds come. Bullfrogs show off with their throaty noises and then you can hear kaplop as they swim away. I am always amazed to see how big they are, or rather aren’t. The smallest frog can make the biggest noise.

Crickets will start in mid summer, when the nights are still. Maybe that is why I have always liked Tennessee Williams. Growing up, we left the windows and doors open, there was no air conditioning. I don’t remember being too hot. Now we have wonderful, energy efficient air conditioners. We wonder how we survived without them.

 

Nights also bring the summer smells. First comes the honeysuckle, then the gardenia, or as the old folks called them, Cape jasmine. Moonflowers are next and the glorious ginger lilies, they permeate the night air with a sweet smell of jasmine.

 

In late July and in August the smell of tobacco curing sneaks in. None of us smoke, but the night smell of curing tobacco is comforting and reminds me of home and youth, playing with my nephew Barney. It is a good thing to remember. Barney has now come back to his roots, just as I have. We are happy.

 

And you cannot forget the night sights: the fireflies, the shooting stars and the imagined space ships. They are all still here and that too is good. You just might see one if you join us.

 

 

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