One of the best parts of gardening is reaping what you sow. Or should I say, cooking what you reaped is one of the best parts of gardening. This week the kids headed to the kitchen to prepare a feast of sweets using their recently harvested sweet potatoes. On the menu was sweet potato fries and sweet potato pie. Mmmm good!
First, we had to wash our potatoes. When making sweet potato fries, we leave the skin on and since these babies came from our garden and not the supermarket, guess whose job it was to scrub them clean?
Yep, you guessed it–upper elementary received the honors! We used the scrub side of a brand new sponge to do the job, but you can also use a nail brush (any small brush will do) to gently clean the dirt from the skin. CAUTION: gently is the key word here. You do not want to remove the skins, only rid them of dirt. Some of the boys needed a bit of practice with this lesson. 🙂
While these kids cleaned our future fries, another group boiled our pie potatoes. Boiling your sweet potatoes first will make skin removal EASY.
When potatoes are soft enough to pierce through with a fork, remove from heat and allow to cool. (Peeling while hot hurts!) But don’t wait until entirely cooled because then the skins tend to stick.
While these kids squished out fresh boiled sweets for our pies, another group spiced up our fries with a rosemary garlic spice combo I picked up at the local supermarket. Personally I find this spice to blend perfectly with the flavor of sweets and many of the kids agreed.
“Wow, that smells good!”
Simple and direct works for me! After the spice, we coated our fries with olive oil and lined them on a shallow baking pan.
Meanwhile, our pie sweets were getting their own set of spices–cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla–and blended until smooth. Then both hit the oven to bake for about 35 – 45 minutes.
For full recipe details, check the recipe section of this website. And be sure you do, because from primary to middle school there wasn’t a frown or scrunched nose to be found. Bravo to our amazing cooks!
But how could anyone not delight in these delicacies? Don’t they just look delicious?
Trust me–they were. In fact, I went straight home and made a few pies of my own. Well… Thanksgiving is the time of year to feast and give thanks, isn’t it? And I’m thankful for a school full of willing participants who make gardening fun, a garden full of wonderful healthy produce and family and friends with whom I can share it all.
Happy Thanksgiving! (gobble, gobble…)
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