Yummy sweet potatoes for your good health

Boiled, baked or braaied, sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are a delicious and healthy winter comfort food. Just a dollop of butter, a little seasoning and you are good to go.

- Alice Spenser-Higgs

They outstrip potatoes in flavour and nutrition, being a low GI veggie that keeps you feeling fuller for longer and blood sugar levels constant. Besides that, sweet potatoes are high in vitamin B6, a good source of vitamin C, and contain vitamin D, as well as minerals like iron and magnesium.

Health and nutrition websites all agree that this easyto-grow veggie can help prevent heart attacks, boost the immune system, protect the body against toxins and improve metabolism.

Getting started

Growing your own sweet potatoes is quite different to all other vegetables, including potatoes. They grow from runners and not from seed.

Sweet potatoes are harvested in winter and if you know someone who has sweet potatoes, cadge some tubers from them.

The other option is to simply buy some sweet potatoes, eat most of them and save some to plant. Here’s the fun part. Try out the different varieties on offer for your preferred flavour and texture. There are red-skinned varieties with firm cream-coloured flesh, as well as purple or orange-skinned types with orange flesh that are much higher in beta-carotene.

How to plant runners