I know that we made much ado about tomatoes a few weeks back, but I actually did take a moment between tomato sandwiches to look forward to fall vegetables. They may not have the same glamour and prestige, but fall crops are comforting, dependable, and versatile.
The rainbow of cauliflowers are irresistible.
I never seem to tire of velvety, garlicky collards.
I can’t find a succinct sentence for the wide array of squashes and their uses.
My favorite fall food is another one that I can recall feeling passionate about from an early age: the sweet potato.
As of this writing, the Old Line Plate database contains 63 recipes where sweet potato is the main ingredient.
It is a shame then that only in the last few years did I become aware that sweet potatoes themselves come in a wide array of varieties and colors. Purple seems pretty exciting but I was most intrigued by a variety of sweet potatoes most commonly cultivated right here in Maryland.
1937 advertisement from Star-Democrat, Easton
I have seen them spelled as “White Hamon” and “White Hayman,” and there are claims that those are two different types altogether. I ordered some slips from Southern Exposure labeled “White Hamon (White Haymon),” sold as a “traditional heirloom of the Eastern Shore.”
They are described by one seller as “more starchy and less sugary than the orange varieties,” but an article about farmer Bill Jardine, of Quail Cove Farms in Machipongo, VA, claims the “Haymans” that he grows are “reputed to be the sweetest of all varieties.”
“The legendary Hayman is a 100-year-old white sweet potato that was once widely grown on the Eastern Shore. It’s a difficult crop with a low yield, so it’s not easy to find. Haymans, smaller than the other varieties tested, are tan and oddly shaped with bumps and raised areas of skin that look like raised veins on the back of someone’s hand. Inside, they are white like a russet potato. The flesh is denser than the others when baked and somewhat fibrous with a distinctly sweeter taste.” – Lorraine Eaton, The Virginian-Pilot, 2009
According to a 1999 article in the Baltimore Sun, just about everyone on the Eastern Shore loves White Hayman sweet potatoes. “It’s a mark of Thanksgiving,” said John Hickman, a native of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. “The Hayman was kept alive by people who liked the way it tasted.”
Hickman researched the potatoes, tracing them back as far as 1880, but didn’t pin down their exact origin or the source of the name.
A few years ago a Washington Post article asserted:
“In 1856, Capt. Daniel Hayman coaxed his ship, the Harriet Ryan, into the docks at Elizabeth City, N.C. He had sailed from the West Indies, and stowed in his holds were semitropical white sweet potatoes.
A Methodist minister hurried aboard and bought the lot of them, said David S. Shields, professor of Southern letters at the University of South Carolina, who researched the potato’s pedigree. The minister’s name has been lost, but the potatoes, dubbed Haymans, spread through the network of Methodist preachers. With Methodists dominant on the Eastern Shore, Haymans took hold.”
1877 blurb from North Carolina paper The Farmer and Mechanic
All of the articles about the potatoes mention their popularity and increasing distribution throughout the state.
Despite their increased popularity, it is possible that some of the white sweet potatoes being peddled in markets in Maryland are not in fact White Haymans.
I got mine at the Waverly Farmers Market, where they are still unknown enough that the seller made sure to inform me that I was buying a SWEET potato. The Virginian-Pilot article leads me to believe that the potato I bought may be an “O’Henry,” “another variety of white sweet potato that is easier and more economically feasible for farmers to grow.”
Regardless, I welcome the opportunity to taste all of the varieties of sweet potatoes available to me.
News stories about peculiarly-shaped sweet potatoes were once surprisingly common
I got this recipe from Mrs. Kitching’s Smith Island Cookbook. I’d asked a friend what kind of pie I should bring to his birthday and he said “white potato or sweet potato” so I thought I’d do some kind of clever switcheroo.
Ultimately this pie didn’t taste dramatically different from a white potato pie, so there wasn’t really any “gotcha” reveal but the pie was enjoyed by all.
Recipe:
2 large or 3 medium sweet potatoes
.5 Cup sugar
.25 Cup butter
1 pinch salt
3 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 Cup evaporated milk
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
.5 Cup milk
pie crust (graham cracker or vanilla wafer works nicely)
Boil sweet potatoes with their skins on, to “seal in” the sweetness. When cooled slightly, remove skins and mash until smooth. Cream together butter and sugar. Add sweet potatoes, salt, egg yolks, and cornstarch. Slowly add evaporated milk and vanilla. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff and fold into sweet potato mixture. Stir in whole milk. Pour into pie crust. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and bake for 25 minutes.
Makes two small 9″ pies or one large deep 9” pie. Extra filling can be baked as pudding.
Recipe adapted from “Mrs. Kitchings Smith Island Cookbook”
