This is the first year we have grown them. We all love sweet potatoes, I don't know why we never tried growing them before. They do have a tendency to vine a lot, so you need to have a space to plant them where they have room to spread out.
Wash them good. Cut out any bad spots.
Put them in hot water for around ten to fifteen minutes.
Cut them into chunks or long strips. Whichever you prefer. I did most of mine into small chunks.
Put in hot jars. I keep my washed jars hot by keeping them in a 150 degree oven.
Put a teaspoon of salt on the potatoes and fill jar with hot water. Leave a little head space.
Put on lids and and rings and then into the pressure canner for 90 minutes. You have to pressure can sweet potatoes!
Snug lids hand tight - do not over tighten the rings. If you over- tighten the rings, the lids may warp during the processing (especially if you use wide mouth jars). This has happened to us before when my husband tightened the lids too tight before putting jars in the canner.
After processing, make sure the cans seal. Listen for the ping!
As always, follow the instructions in your canning booklet.
We didn't can all of our sweet potatoes. They keep well. I will use the others for casseroles and pies.
Click here for a good site that tells all about growing and harvesting sweet potatoes.
Have you ever ate a sweet potato pie? They are very good. Here is the recipe I used.
Cinnamon Streusel Sweet Potato Pie
1 1/2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 T corn syrup
1 cup evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon ginger
Streusel
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 T all-purpose flour
2 T butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts of your choice (pecans or walnuts)
Place cookie sheet on oven rack. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Mix mashed sweet potatoes with remaining filling ingredients with wire whisk (or mixer) until smooth; pour into frozen pie crust.
Bake on cookie sheet 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees; bake 20 minutes longer.
Mix streusel ingredients and carefully sprinkle over filling. Bake 10 to 15 minutes longer or until knife inserted in center comes out clean and streusel is golden brown. Cool completely.
Serve with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream.
This pie is very good. It did not last long at our house.
I love canning sweet potatoes! In the winter, I put a jar of canned sweet potatoes in a casserole dish, sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice, and heat in the oven. So easy and good. We have not harvested our sweet potatoes in North Alabama; we plan to do that next week.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds good, Wanda. Have fun harvesting yours.
DeleteIt is so rewarding to reap what you sow and have food all year 'round to make a variety of dishes.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda. It's a lot of work, but the goodies are worth it.
DeleteYou are amazing woman in the realm of good food. Wish I had your drive to take on all the projects that you do. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteHi Barbara. Thanks, but not really. There are times I feel like my drive has got up and driven away :)
DeleteThat's quite a crop! We grew them a few times, but not this year. Maybe we need to do it again next year.
ReplyDeleteHi, Suzanne. Thanks. This is the first time we ever grew them. I think we'll do it again next year.
DeleteWell, I'm impressed. You are so talented.
ReplyDeleteWhy, thank you, Donna. I'm sure you could do it, too :o)
DeleteJanet this is the first year I've tried to grow them too-but yours outdid mine by a mile!
ReplyDeleteHi, Tipper. I think we had beginners' luck. We'll try again next year, too.
Delete