Good morning, sweet friends!
I don’t know about you but these days I’m focused on doing one thing every day that helps my family weather the rising prices of gas, food, and so many other things.
This year we decided that what we put into the garden will be full of solid nutrition and nourishment, and while that means we are cutting back on the variety, we are focusing on planting more than we have in years.
Today my task was starting our sweet potato slips from the batch of organic sweet potatoes we just grabbed a few weeks ago from Azure Standard.
I went ahead and grabbed organic ones for a couple reason…less nasties used in growing them and a better chance of being able to sprout new sweet potato slips off of them when they are suspended in a jar of water.
Did you know that it is not only the root of the sweet potato that is edible but also the leaves? Use them in salads or even like spinach, cooked into items, and give your family a boost of nutrition to add to their meal. Animals also love the entire plant, so for food value and versatility in supplying nutrition from your garden, this plant is a winner.
Its also extremely easy to grow shoots if you have grow lights, filtered water, and some sweet potatoes.
Just suspend the sweet potato over a jar of water, with some of it extending into the water to grow roots. I don’t know about you, but I remember my mom doing something similar with avocado pits when I was a kid. So it was kinda funny to watch my kids helping me do the same thing years later but knowing we actually will get some awesome food out of it in the end! (I don’t remember us ever actually getting avocados, so that has a lot to do with that! ha!)
It will take a short time, and then you will begin to see growths happen off the side of the sweet potato. Any shoots that develop above the water line can be allowed to grow about six inches tall, then be gently plucked off and re-rooted in their own cup of water.
That is seriously how easy it is.
Then each one of those shoots becomes a sweet potato plant!
How fabulous is that??
Think of the enormous amount of plants and nutrition you can get from a single sweet potato!
Sweet potatoes are a vining plant, and love long hot days, so when you plant them in direct sun, even in grow bags, give them a chance to grow up a trellis, which not only uses less space, but allows you to also grab handfuls of their delicious leaves for your family or your animals. watch our Instagram account this year to see all the fun and delicious updates as we grow them this year, along with the rest of our garden adventures!
What are some of the things you have slowly been working on this last month or so to be more solidly prepared for hard times ahead? I would love to hear about i>Be sure to follow along on our Telegram channel <<where we share daily recipes, tips and discussions on multiple subjects the blog is focused on! We are developing a great community over there and would love to have you join us!
Blessings to you and yours,
Heather and family
