Subject: Re: young Sweet potatoe leaves taste beautiful - don't waste it all as forage

From: "April Sampson-Kelly" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 13:18:40 +1100

why waste sweet potatoe leaves as forage Dan?
we eat them year round here - it is far more satisfying than beans and peas,
the chickens and snails usually let it alone when the chickens escape.
i never dig it up unless it gets in the way of other plants.
i have white, pink and purple varieties, they are easy to grow from the
stock in
fruit and vegetable shops.
my favourite recipe:
fry a few Spanish onions in olive oil, until clear (sweet)
add sliced mushrooms, sweet potatoe new leaves (these are the purple shoots)
and some grapefruit juice, put a lid on the pan and turn the heat down.
serve hot when steamed (5-10 min)

as for forage - it all boils down to whether the sweet potatoe leaf has inbuilt 
toxins as do many greens,
we don't eat it much as a salad green because i haven't checked this out,
maybe someone on the list knows.
April

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April Sampson-Kelly ADPA,BCA,MCA,GradSci,PDC
LC Permaculture Visions
leaders in permaculture learning by correspondence
[email-masked]
[email-masked]
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~askpv
GOOD PLANETS ARE HARD TO FIND
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-----Original Message-----
From: YankeePerm <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked] <[email-masked]>; [email-masked]
<[email-masked]>; [email-masked]
<[email-masked]>
Date: Wednesday, 31 December 1997 3:03
Subject: Sweet potatoes as leafy forage?

>Ok, I was digging sweet potatoes (Ipomea batcas) yesterday and looking at
the
>zillions of little roots that never got big in amongst the hand-fillers and
>thinking, there is a use for these.  In the past, we had rabbits and we fed
>them to the rabbits.  For various reasons unrelated to the pleasures of
eating
>rabbit, we have not got any yet at Barking Frogs Farm.
>
>However it occurs to me that I can place the little tubers under mulch in
the
>pasture, which is often wet, and grow the leaves as forage for my steer
(soon,
>I hope, to be joined by a few Asian water buffalo).  I'm not sure how much
>forage the tubers will stand.  I'm also not sure if I allow them to
>"perennialize" if I will be breeding the little root borers that ruin sweet
>potatoes when grown repeatedly from roots (vs "slips")
>
>I'm thinking that these will go well in wetter parts of the pasture (well
we
>have an acre under water at the moment--not there!).  One produces slips by
>putting roots in a wet environment.  Storage roots are important only to
the
>extent that they enable the plants to survive grazing cycles.
>
>Does anyone have any experience using sweet potato LEAVES as forage?  How
>about water spinach?  (either I reptans or I aquatica)
>
>The present sweet potatoes are part of a year long cycle I use here for
>bringing land into cultivation.  First I grow Andean (white) potatoes by
>throwing cut pieces on the ground and covering with mulch. I generally
>broadcast a bit of bone meal to help the potatoes repell Colarado potato
>beetles. As I harvest the white potatoes, I transplant sweet potatoes after
>them (They are very unrelated).  Generally, I supplement the mulch over the
>growing season as it melts away rapidly in our hot, humid climate.  Being
near
>our poultry house, the sweet potatoes got a bit of litter from coop
cleaning
>as well.  Now, digging the sweet potatoes I'm cutting through remaining
tree
>roots so that less competitve plants might make a go here.  Next can come
>anything, legumes, greens, etc.  It is an easy way to move into garden
spaces,
>particularly when one first occupies a site and there is SO much to do.  We
>have gotten quite respectible crops of both white and green spuds.
>
>So, now I want to hear from folks who can tell me about sweet potato as
>forage.  I don't need to reinvent any wheels!
>
>For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982),
>Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
>consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
>courses via email.  One is now underway.  Next Live program:  Paraguay,
>8/10-22/98. Internships available. Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway,
>P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192 USA  [email-masked]
>
>We don't have time to rush.
>
>A list by topic of all Yankee Permaculture titles may be found at
>http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalog.html
>