Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> You're right -- time to start raising your own potatoes with dark
> skins and lots of much. In the meantime, you can probably make do with
> a nice sweet pottato.

Sweet potatoes are high on my good eating list, both for enjoyment  
and for health. In Rodale's 1981 book, Home Food Systems, there is on  
page 457, "The good-food target," a drawing of concentric ovals, with  
four outer rings and a center circle. In the perimeter ring is stuff  
like salted snacks and soda pop, the not-so-good-for-you stuff. In  
the center are the foods on which we may gorge ourselves with only  
benefit to our health. Among the whole grains, less-fatty fish,  
broccoli and garlic are found, yep, sweet potatoes. Eat all you like  
and you will glow like a pregnant lady.

Again, an ideal homestead food: highly healthful, easy to grow, easy  
to store.  Always a regular crop at Heartwood. We store them upstairs  
above our bedroom, where it is cool in winter but warmer than the  
root cellar.

We have now a new way to enjoy them. A restaurant here in Phoenix  
introduced us to sweet potato fries with a sassy sauce and I have  
started making them. Still experimenting with dips; something tangy  
works well. I cook them in olive oil, but less than most people would  
use, just a bit more than for normal fried potatoes. Lip-smacking yummy.

Home Food Systems is a fine and useful book. It is out of print but  
Amazon has ten used copies available, from $5.37 to $38.82 plus $3.49  
shipping. One proud owner claims to have a copy in new condition and  
will part with it for $95.00.
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Food-Systems-Processing-Preserving/dp/ 
0878573208/ref=sr_1_3/002-8258346-8083207? 
ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174279242&sr=8-3

No, I won't part with mine.