Sweet Potatoes ------ Finally!

We will have sweet potatoes, tomatoes, okra and birdhouse gourds at Mound City Farmers' Market today (4:00 - 7:00) and Saturday at Farmers' Market in Maryville.  Sweet spreads availble will be:  apple butter, blackberry jelly, blueberry jam, peach jam, pepper jelly and strawberry jam.  We'll also have some baked goods.

So far, the sweet potatoes we've dug are beautiful.  I am so impatient when it comes to root crops, because I can't see what is happening underground.  The sweet potato vines are healthy-looking and the leaves on them are huge this year.  So, what I wanted to know was:  does that indicate a good sweet potato crop, or does that mean all the plants' energy has gone to making leaves and vines so the sweet potatoes won't amount to much?  A couple of weeks ago, I told Tom we should dig up some and see what is going on.  He said he'd move the mulch and see if he could feel potatoes developing (this is called noodling).  That day, the ground was still too wet, so, no clue.  Sweet potato anxiety continued!  But, finally, yesterday I got to see that all this time, potatoes were actually growing and they are impressive.  It's like digging for hidden treasure!