the great debate: Yam vs. sweet potato

Despite the confusion, the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is not related to the true African yam (Dioscorea). The sweet potato is a root and a member of the morning glory family. This can be observed in the sweet potato’s characteristically beautiful leaves and flowers. The true African yam is a large hairy tuber of tropical origins, and most people in the United States have never even seen one. The yams that you encounter in the supermarket are most likely sweet potatoes.

There are two main sources of this confusion:

1. The African-American connection: Ships transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas were provisioned with true yams, which are a staple crop in many countries in West Africa. In the US there were no yams, so this important cultural food was replaced with the closest thing growing in New World, sweet potatoes. West Africans even took to calling them by their native word nyami, which was later Anglicized to “yam.”

2. Louisiana Yams of the 1930’s: The USDA allowed Louisiana to brand the moist, bright orange Puerto Rico variety of sweet potato as a yam in order to distinguish it from the the prevalent varieties of the day, commonly grown in Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey, that were paler in color, drier in texture, and generally less sweet. These days you will often find bright orange and sweet varieties grown all over the country being called yams in the supermarket, but today the USDA requires that all varieties of Ipomoea batatas include the word “sweet potatoes” on the box even when they are marketed as yams.

Early origins

Archeological evidence suggests that the sweet potato has been domesticated in the Americas for a very long time, at least as far back as 2000 B.C., possibly as early as 8000 B.C., which would make the sweet potato one of the earliest cultivated crops anywhere in the world. Columbus found sweet potatoes growing in Haiti in 1492 and took them back to Spain, where they became one of the earliest New World crops adopted by Europeans. De Soto recorded sweet potatoes being cultivated by Native Americans in Louisiana and as far north as Georgia in 1540. By 1648, the Virginia colonists had planted them in their own gardens.

Southern history

Without a doubt sweet potatoes were an essential crop for all Southerners throughout history. The scent of sweet potatoes cooked in the wood stove permeated the air during our grandparents’ generations. Children, hunters, and laborers carried sweet potatoes in their pockets for a meal away from home. Whether rich or poor, black or white, the sweet potato provided nutrition through our toughest times.

George Washington Carver said that sweet potatoes were one of “the greatest gifts God has ever given us.” He claimed that they had the potential save the farmer and replenish soils ravished by King Cotton. At the very least, it was a crop that provided sustenance and long term nutrition to all who grew it. Sweet potatoes produced a good yield even in sandy soils, making them a good crop for the poor, who couldn’t afford fertile bottom land. They could be used to fatten livestock. Stacked high and covered in straw, the “tater hill” would keep a family fed all winter.

Commercial Sweet potatoes in Vardaman, ms

Sweet potatoes were long grown in the home fields and gardens around Vardaman, MS, as they were everywhere in the Southeastern US. However, around 1915 there were a few families who moved into the area from Tennessee and soon began growing sweet potatoes for commercial markets. Many of the sweet potato growers in Mississippi and Calhoun County today are descendants of those families. The Penicks were one of the early families, and at the Sweet Potato Convention in Jackson, MS in 1987, J.R. Penick, Sr. told how in that first planting in 1916 the entire community of commercial growers planted 30 acres of Nancy Hall and Puerto Rico varieties, which were stick transplanted into elevated rows.

Today there are over 100 sweet potato farms and 25 packing facilities in Mississippi, centered around Vardaman, Mississippi. The first annual Vardaman Sweet Potato Festival was begun in 1974 and has grown to be one of the largest such events in Mississippi. The week long festivities kick off with an arts and crafts fair, which can draw as many as 20,000 people to our tiny little town, on the first Saturday in November. Come and join us for some good old fashioned fun! You can usually find us around the Sweet Potato Tasting Booth, where you can sample the delicious and versatile sweet potato in everything from candy to sausage balls.