I’ve been told many a time I have strange eating habits. Huh, what’s so weird about eating purple sweet potatoes?
My husband and I instantly fell in love with these potatoes while on our honeymoon in Hawaii last year. The yummy Okinawa Purple Sweet potato. Wow, babe, we could grow these in our Florida climate!! So when we returned home, we searched endlessly. We tried California, local Oriental Food Markets, Hawaii, and yes, Japan, but no luck. What the heck? We finally discovered Hawaii has a little problem. They are called weevils. These weevils tirelessly decimate their crops. Hawaii’s answer to the weevil? Irradiate the crops. Well, darn it, you can’t sprout a sweet potato that’s been irradiated. And Hawaii has strict regulations about importing and exporting foods. It’s impossible to grow this sweet potato outside of Hawaii.
Apparently, Dr Oz, in all his brilliance, isn’t aware of this either. The Okinawan Sweet Potato: A Purple Powerhouse of Nutrition | Down to Earth. Thank you for the tease Dr Oz! Well I hope the Hawaiian’s are enjoying their new ‘superfood’. What about the rest of America?
Well, we found another purple sweet potato, the Stoke’s Purple Sweet Potato. (well, technically its a yam, but no one needs to know, shhhhhhh) Purple Sweet Potatoes (Purple Yam) – Home of the Stokes Purple Sweet Potato – Stokes Foods, Inc..
So, if you’re invited to our house, and you’re served this for dinner…
know that a lot of time, hard labor, sweat, love, and patience, went into this fabulous tasting potato.
And no more making fun of me, Dr Oz thinks I’m cool for eating a superfood! 🙂
For more info Sweetpotato Production Guides for Hawaii.
Babe and a Blender 
Wow that looks like ube. That’s a purple yam from the Phillipines. They use it in all kinds of desserts there. If you see purple ice cream in the Phillippines you can guarantee it is ube flavored. I’ll have that for dinner:)
I love purple potatoes!! We have them here in Saipan, so I just got my first one recently 🙂 I was told in the states, you can sometimes find them in Asian stores. I don’t know if you saw it on my blog, but some kids made mashed purple potatoes with a mango salsa – it has AMAZING presentation! They molded it into shapes, layer it with white mashed potatoes and pineapple pieces… so pretty!!! (Post: Local Food, Local Fun) I am going to get the recipe from my friend who helped put it all together. Can’t wait to try it!