Toni, sweet potatoes are vines and become quite rampant, they don't just need lots of room, they'll take it. They're Ipomoeas, Morning Glories, in the Convolvulaceae family. Ordinary potatoes (Irish Potatoes) are Solanaceae family (I'd call them solenoids, but some electricians might object). Included in that family are some extremely toxic plants, like Deadly Nightshade, but also include tomates and eggplants. One of our locals, Solanum echinatum has fruits like small yellow tomatoes. If you eat that it ruptures the lining of your stomach and you vomit blood until you die, reasonably rapidly. Yet similar looking fruit off other solanums here are eaten as a healthy natural food. Those are fruits, though, tubers you can often cook to make them edible. It was interesting, some years back I was living with Aborigines in a remote part of Central Arnhem Land. Some times when the elders came across a plant they weren't familiar with and weren't sure of its edibility they'd try a bit. You could see they were checking for any telltale signs of substances that could be harmful. But they were tuned into that, much the same as people everywhere in old times before we became "civilised" (and less knowledgable). Now days we just trust the food processors, or our next of kin sue them. Sweet potatoes grow easily from vine cuttings. As I said, if you put them in a glass of water (in a warm place) they'll have a mass of roots after a few days. That's when I plant them in soil. The ones under the Acacia got there themselves from vines running from the garden. When I went to remove them a while later they'd already produced tubers, but on top of the ground, under the leaves. So I left them. Roots ran through the leaves and also into the ground.

You know, I think our traditional Thanksgiving meal is about as close as we get to indigenous food, right? The wild turkeys were here when the first Puritans arrived. The native Americans were raising corn and squash and beans, I think, and sunflowers as well, which was a major vegetable protein source for them via the seeds which are easy to preserve. Cranberries are native in some parts of the country, and so is wild rice. So, all those ingredients are more or less indigenous American foods. Maybe one problem is that our nation is so large geographicaly, so we do have more regionalized "America food" depending on what foods are readily available in each region instead of a well-known "American" cuisine. For example, if you grew up in Boston, you might argue that lobster and Boston baked beans are true American cuisine, but if you grew up in Georgia or South Carolina, maybe you'd insist it was barbeque, baked beans, cornbread and grits. I was thinking about what kind of native food a forager would find growing naturally here in Oklahoma....there's wild game, of course, and wild blackberries and wild grapes here in southern OK, and some of you probably have wild huckleberries or currants in some eastern parts of the state that we don't have here. Here in southern OK, we have the wild prickley pears (you can make jelly from them) and native pecans and walnuts, and persimmons. There's also several kinds of wild plums, and you can fish in the Red River for catfish. Dorothy, I think I am going to grow peanuts next year so we can make our own peanut butter without all the additives. I remember having a Mr. Peanut machine when I was a little kid....you put the peanuts in his hat and turned the handle and got peanut butter (a peanut paste probably would be a better description). It was simple, so it seems like it'd be simple to make homemade peanut butter in the food processor or blender. Carol, I love all those old Southern Living recipe books...they are my kind of cooking! Another great cookbook full of old-style southern cooking is Fannie Flagg's Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook, which came out at about the same time that her book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, was made into the movie of the same name. If my grandmother and southern aunts had written a cookbook of the foods they prepared their entire lives, it would have been very, very similar to Fannie Flagg's cookbook. Dawn

Not exactly a classic Turkey Day sweet potato recipe, but you might want to try it now that sweet potatoes are plentiful! Take care to keep your "fries" uniform in size. Small ones will burn before larger ones get done, otherwise. I like the seasonings in this recipe! Baked Sweet Potato Fries Recipe by Our Best Bites 1 lb peeled sweet potatoes cut into 1/4" match-sticks 2 T extra virgin olive oil 1/2 t cumin 1/2 t oregano 1/2 t coriander 1 t kosher salt 1 t parsley 1/8 tsp black pepper *you want 1lb sweet potatoes after they are peeled, sliced, etc. If you weigh them at the store make sure you have a little more than a pound to allow for the peeling, and tossing of small pieces. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a small bowl combine cumin, oregano, coriander, salt, parsley, and pepper. Place sweet potatoes in a pile directly on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Use hands to toss until all pieces are well coated. Sprinkle seasoning mixture on top and toss again with hands to coat. Arrange sweet potatoes in a single layer so that pieces are not touching each other. Place pan in oven and bake for 15 minutes. Use a metal spatula to gently flip fries and then return pan to oven. Cook for an additional 15-20 minutes or until fries are starting to lightly brown and crisp. Remove pan from oven and cool 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Interesting discussion. The Library of Congress is a wonderful organization. Just OT, I visited the LC for the first time in September 2011. As a librarian, it was an absolutely wonderful experience, considering the huge international influence LC has in the library world. Like visiting a shrine for this geek ! LOL