Thinking Ahead -- Sweet Potatoes

Today this is what things look like on the outside. 

But there’s no reason to sulk because the winter’s getting long.

I’m inside ordering seeds from my favorite seed catalog, Pinetree Garden Seeds,

a small company in Maine.  (You can order your own catalog here!)

And yesterday I opened the little plywood door

 to the crawlspace under our house

 where the sweet potatoes are stored,

and picked out two healthy looking ‘taters. 

 These two will go into jars of water to grow roots and sprouts. 

It’s what my mamma did and what her mamma did;

pop a ‘tater into water, wait for the sprouts to get about 4-6inches tall,

and then break them off right at the base where they join the sweet potato.

 These sprouts get stuck in their personal jar of water 

where they’ll sprout their own roots,

hopefully just about the time the weather stays nice and warm. 

Then they can be transplanted right out into the garden soil. 

Sweet potato plants are partial to very warm weather, just like some people are.

Here’s a sweet potato flower on a vine in last year’s garden.

 Last summer’s vines went crazy.

 Fifteen little starts made 160 pounds of ‘taters! 

I like thinking ahead to spring and summer.

The waiting and getting ready make it sweeter.

A lot of things are that way actually, if you think about it.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,

 and death shall be no more,

neither shall there be mourning,

nor crying,

nor pain anymore,

for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4