sweet potato leaves

Harvest Monday – September 5th

~ McArtor ~ 5 Comments

hot peppers, sweet potato leaves and eggplant
This week we planted more than we harvested. We planted turnips, beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kale, radishes and several kinds of leaf lettuces. We pulled out the last of our tomato plants and one pepper plant. Our gourd and sweet potato vines are spreading everywhere. We picked bags of sweet potato leaves. I plan to lightly saute the leaves, put them into quart size bags and freeze. I made a tasty Asian rice noodle soup with the sweet potato leaves. The leaves are thick enough to hold up well in soup.
cut figs

We picked more figs from our backyard fig tree.  I drizzled the figs with a sweet sauce of melted butter, honey, cinnamon and salt then baked them for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. They were yummy on their own or on top of ricotta cheese.

Our Harvest Totals for this week: eggplant 2 pounds, figs 1.75 pounds, sweet potato leaves 2.5 pounds, hot peppers 1 pound.

Total Harvest this week: 5.25 pounds
Total Harvest this season: 262.35

Check out Daphne’s Dandelions, the host of Harvest Monday, for more harvest totals from other gardeners.

Sweet Potato Leaves

~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment
our sweet potato vine explosion

We discovered greens that grow well in hot weather – sweet potato leaves (also called sweet potato tops).  A Chinese gardener from our community garden told us that sweet potato leaves are edible.  They are rich in vitamins A, C, and B2 (Riboflavin).

cooked sweet potato leaves

We have an abundance of sweet potato leaves growing in our community garden plot!  The leafy vines are taking over our leek bed and walking path so I picked a couple bagfuls for my cooking experiments.

1.  I sauted the leaves in olive oil with shallots then simmered them in chicken stock.  I served the cooked leaves with quinoa.   It was yummy.

2.  I sauted  the leaves  in vegetable oil with chopped ginger, then simmered the leaves in chicken stock. I served it as a side dish.  It tasted delicious.

I discovered that  sweet potato tops are strong and hearty, will hold up to cooking, are similar to spinach and have a mild, non-bitter taste.