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 Welcome to Wiser Now’s weekly email blast which reflects my eclectic interests and, I hope, yours. It’s Sweet Potato Awareness Month, a vegetable worth eating all year, but that tends to get its due primarily around American Thanksgiving tables, where it often sparks controversy having nothing to do with politics. (Marshmallows or no? See below.) You may think there’s not much of interest to say about sweet potatoes, but I aim to prove otherwise.
I hope you are finding these offerings fun, and perhaps even useful, and I welcome your feedback. (Kathy@WiserNow.com) And if you haven’t yet pressed the subscribe button so this newsletter doesn’t go to spam, please do so now.
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The Quirky Quote
 "Some people think I look like a sweet potato, I consider myself a spud with a heart of gold." ~ Shirley MacLaine
The Quirky Facts
 There is great confusion over the difference between sweet potatoes and yams in the US that has been unintentionally aggravated by the American Department of Agriculture. Because the two words tend to be used interchangeably in the United States (and Canada), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires “yam” labels to always be accompanied by “Sweet Potato,” supposedly to alleviate confusion. In reality, yams and sweet potatoes (as well as white potatoes) as this graphic shows, are distinct plants with origins in different hemispheres – yams in Africa, sweet potatoes in South and Central America.
The Quirky Observation
  Sweet potatoes come in many different varieties and colors from white to yellow, orange, red, and purple, but the sweetest are the orange variety. The plant also has a sweetly attractive flower, similar to a Morning Glory. (It’s part of the same genus.)
The Shameless Request
Please share Wiser Now Wednesday with anyone you think might be interested, and if you represent an organization that would like a customized version, send me a note at Kathy@WiserNow.com.
Featured Product
 The 142 slides in the Wiser Now Remembering November slide show focus on Native American Heritage Month, Lifewriting Month, and Thanksgiving in the U.S. and Canada (even though Canada celebrates it in October). Exercises include multiple trivia quizzes, word games, reminiscence exercises and discussions. You’ll learn and laugh your way through the month – gratefully. Learn more or purchase it here.
The Quiz
Only three of the following statements are true as written. Can you figure out which ones?
- Archeological evidence suggests the cultivation of sweet potatoes might have begun in what is now Brazil around 2500-1850 BCE.
 Archaeologists have found prehistoric remnants of sweet potatoes in Polynesia dating from about A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1100, as well as DNA evidence suggesting that the Polynesians took sweet potatoes west across the Pacific from present day South America hundreds of years before European explorers took them east across the Atlantic.
- Early European explorers brought sweet potatoes back from what is now Central America, and Henry VIII was a fan.
- Proving too much of a good thing is even better, even the earliest sweet potato recipes called for additional sweeteners.
- US President John Adams grew sweet potatoes.
 Most of us know about George Washington Carver’s experiments with peanuts, but he also came up with 200 sweet potato recipes.
- The addition of marshmallows to sweet potato recipes was really a marketing ploy from the makers of Cracker Jack.
- Even baked and minus the marshmallows, sweet potatoes are not a good vegetable for diabetics.
Answers and explanations are at the end of the document.
The Question
Where do you stand on the big question of sweet potatoes and marshmallows as a combination? Yea or nay? And is that or isn’t it a more divisive conversation topic than politics this Thanksgiving?
The Resources
Answers to the quiz
- False. Make that Peru and it would be true in terms of the earliest cultivation records, although some sources cite an origin “at least 5000 years ago” in Central and South America generally.
- True.
- True. Some sources suggest they were believed to increase lust, which may have been part of the attraction.
- False. Early recipes called for roasting them in oil, vinegar, and salt. The only sweetener mentioned was boiling them with prunes. What we know as candied yams (made with caramelized brown sugar or molasses, for example) seems to have followed many generations later.
- False. Sweet potatoes require a tropical or warm temperate climate and Adams lived in Massachusetts, but both Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew sweet potatoes on their land.
- False. My resources mention only about 100, but that seems impressive enough.
- True. Marshmallows get their name from a plant root used as far back as the time of ancient Egyptians for medicinal purposes.
 In the 1800s, French confectioners found dropping the mallow root and processing water, sugar, and gelatin (today corn starch), made a tasty candy by itself. After a few refinements, US immigrants from Germany, Frederick and Louis Rueckheim, inventors of Cracker Jack, created a penny candy called Angelus Marshmallows in the early 1900s. In an effort to boost sales, they asked Janet McKenzie Hill, the founder of the Boston Cooking School Magazine, to help them develop recipes that included marshmallows. And it was she, in 1917 who created the first documented appearance of mashed sweet potatoes baked with a marshmallow topping. The cylindrical marshmallows used today, however, have come to us thanks to Greek American confectioner Alex Doumak, who patented the process in 1956.
- False. Despite its “sweet” label, sweet potatoes can be eaten by diabetics because their low glycemic index means they do not cause a sudden spike in blood sugar levels. Plus, for all of us, sweet potatoes are vitamin and mineral rich, and particularly high in beta-carotene.
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My multiple goals are to amuse and inspire you, to share what I and people whom I admire am doing, to stimulate your curiosity and spur you to action. I hope you enjoyed this offering. You can access previous issues here. We welcome your feedback. (Kathy@WiserNow.com)
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