Sweet Potatoes

Do you know the difference between Yams and Sweet Potatoes? Don't feel bad, most people do not.

Sweet potatoes are brighter in color and are what most people buy in the US. Spruce.ca has pictures of each. Trust me, you are used to eating sweet potatoes! In fact according to SeedsofKnowledge.com, yams are rarely sold in the US at all.

Yams look more like a (white) potatoe and have more sugar than sweet potatoes.

Not confused yet? Ok, then consider that there are two kinds of sweet potatoes (orange skinned--the norm, and a drier, yellow-skinned variety). Many consider the yellow colored variety to be a yam, but officially, NO. To make matters worse, most Americans (including our stores on occassion and canned sweet potato manufacturers) use the names interchangeably.

The best description of how the confusion started is from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture--short version--when slaves came to America, people misunderstood what they were calling the sweet potato.

Want a little more history?

• Sweet potatoes have been around for "an estimated 4000 years!sweet potato has an exciting history over 4,000 years old? It has been used for food since prehistoric times in tropical America and on some South Pacific Islands. At one time, sweet potatoes were an important component of the Aztec diet." http://members.aol.com/TexTater/texas.html
• Sweet potatoes are part of the morning glory family.
• In colonial South, the term "potato" generally referred to the sweet potato. What we know as a potato was often called the "Irish" potato. (Which is strange given the so-called Irish Potato was native to South America!)
• Thomas Jefferson was a big fan of the "potato" (i.e sweet potato) and considered the pumpkin a substitue if potatoes were in short supply
  

References:
http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/
http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/yams.html