Sweet Potato - A Natural on Tamborine Mountain

Some people think that Tamborine Mountain got its name from the aboriginal word tumbirin. Tum meaning yam and Borine is a water place near a cliff.

Sweet Potato are easy to grow or can be bought fresh in your local farmers market

Another source says it comes from Tchambreen meaning finger lime. I don’t mind either explanation as they are both foods that I love.

Things haven’t changed as yams or sweet potatoes still grow abundantly well on Tamborine mountain. How do you grow sweet potatoes? Well.. you don’t have to try, they grow by themselves and prolifically so! They would have to be the easiest vegetable I have grown, and our rich red soil, in sun for most of the day suits them perfectly.

Growing Sweet Potatoes
They are best grown by cuttings, take one about a foot long, remove the leaves except for the few at the tip and plant it horizontally, give it an occasional water to get it started and then forget about it. In no time it will have grown roots from nodes where the leaves were removed and started to spread, keep it contained otherwise it may take over the garden.

They are a perfect substitute to grow instead of regular potatoes as they have less diseases and require little fertilizer and water.

Sweet Potato Souffle with Pecan nut topping

Sweet Potatoes are fast growing, have attractive heart shaped glossy leaves and make ideal living mulch. If planted on a bank the vines prevent erosion and weeds.

The names of the varieties are easy to remember – no complicated botanical names here, just white, red, purple and orange! I like the orange one, also known as Kumera. Anything a normal potato can do a sweet potato can do, only much, much better! Steam them and mash it with nutmeg and cream, make chips with them and puree them into soups.

Sweet Potato chips served with herbs

Cuisines that use Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potato blends well with flavours from most cuisines. In Thai food with chilli, lemongrass and coriander. Mediterranean with garlic, parmesan and bitter salad leaves. Not to mention the way they soak up the spices in Indian curries. The Americans use them in sweet pies and mix them with nuts.

But my favourite way goes to our neighbours across the Tasman, the New Zealand Maoris bake them whole, buried in the ground as part of a Hungi. Cooked this way they are charred, black and smoky on the outside and creamy sweet on the inside, split them open and add a dob of butter.  Yum!

Children love them too, to eat and to grow. I have some whole sweet potatoes half submerged in water, that have shoots coming off them, when they are mature enough, I will take them off and give them to the grade ones at St Bernard’s school for planting in their gardens.

I will also get the students to taste the different varieties and learn how to prepare and cook them. Kumera are high in nutrition, have a low GI and are low cost.

“Spiced and Buried Sweet Potato”
With BBQ season here try it wrapped in foil buried in the coals. Wash a sweet potato, stab it in all over. Make a spice mix or use curry powder, rub it over the potato with salt and oil, wrap in foil.

Then burry it in the hot coals (or put it in the oven) for about 30 minutes.

Unwrap, and hit it with a squeeze of lime, and enjoy the aromas in the hot steam.