These days I can see women on our island, all over 80-years old, carting piles of sweet potatoes in wheel barrows from their gardens to their homes. Japanese sweet potatoes are the size of hand grenades and have what look like fuses on the ends. I always think of artillery when I see piles of sweet potatoes. It seems like such a violent vegetable.
The sweet potato reigns supreme among the fall vegetables in Japan. It seems that not an autumn passes without some kind of event honoring this esteemed vegetable.
I suppose this is why a teacher from the Shiraishi Island Elementary School said to me last week, "Please come to the school and teach the students how you cook sweet potatoes in America." I told her I would, then rushed home and said to my husband, "Teach me how to cook sweet potatoes!" I had no idea how to make them.