Cook a Sweet Potato Day 2023: Date, History, Facts, Activities

Cook a Sweet Potato Day occurs annually on February 22. This vegetable is adored and consumed daily by millions in the United States alone. People frequently mistake sweet potatoes for yams, but this is not the case. Sweet potato cultivars have tubers with flesh and skin of various hues.

The background of Cook a Sweet Potato Day

Sweet potatoes are consumed by billions of people worldwide, primarily in the United States. This versatile sweet root vegetable is used in salads and soups and can be consumed for breakfast, lunch, a snack, or dinner. The most important part of the plant is its tuberous, starchy roots. However, the leaves and young shoots are also edible. The nutritional value and digestibility of tubers are enhanced by cooking; however, many American colonists in the Southeast consumed raw sweet potatoes.

As both are members of the order Solanales, sweet potatoes are distantly related to the common potato. Before Western exploration, it is believed that sweet potatoes were grown in Polynesia. Later, it is believed that they spread to Central or South America by means of vine cuttings as opposed to seeds. In fact, it is believed that sweet potatoes were domesticated in Central America approximately 5,000 years ago. According to the remains of Peruvian sweet potatoes discovered in South America, they date back to 8000 B.C.

Luzon introduced sweet potatoes to the Chinese province of Fujian in 1594. Governor Chin Hsüeh-Tseng (Jin Xuezeng) encouraged the cultivation of sweet potatoes even further. In 2019, the global sweet potato production was estimated at 92 million tonnes. China dominated this production with 56 percent of the global total.

The arrival of sweet potatoes in Europe is documented in “Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book,” compiled in England in 1604.

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COOK A SWEET POTATO DAY ACTIVITIES

Plant a vine of sweet potato.

Easy to plant sweet potato vines, especially if you have a garden. Plant it between the end of spring and the beginning of summer. Depending on the variety, keep them 10 to 36 inches apart. If using a container, use high-quality, all-purpose potting soil and ensure that the bottom of the container has drainage holes.

Read “Sweet Potato Baby.”

As a bedtime story, read to your child “Little Sweet Potato.” Little Sweet Potato’s quest to find the perfect home is the subject of this book.

Make sweet potato fries

Have a craving for those delicious potato fries? Instead of regular fries, make sweet potato fries. Put on a movie or show and enjoy your nutritious snack while watching it.

5 DELICIOUS FACTS ABOUT SWEET POTATOES

The sweet potato is a root vegetable, while the yam is a tuber.

Sweet potatoes require longer and warmer growing seasons than regular potatoes.

There are various colours of sweet potatoes, including orange, white, and purple.

Sweet potatoes are a staple in Uganda and Rwanda and are popular in many regions of the world.

North Carolina’s state vegetable in the United States is the sweet potato.

COOK A SWEET POTATO DAY DATES