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POTATO LEAVES ARE POISONOUS BUT YOU CAN EAT SWEET POTATO LEAVES

We are into making and growing our own things. We are so amazed by the process of it, being self-sufficient and all. Oh, we are such urban bumpkins! We like the idea of being able to pluck something from our indoor garden and throw it straight into the wok for a stirfry (after washing of course).

We had dinner with a couple of friends over the weekend and we ordered potato leaves with belachan. Belachan is a dried fermented shrimp paste, sometimes made spicy, sometimes not. It is pungent and it gives a lot of flavor to dishes. It is very typical of Southeast Asia cuisine to use belachan. OK, back to the potato leaves.

Do you know you can easily grow your own organic potato leaves for consumption at home? This is something we will try in Amsterdam and blog about. When you have a sprouting spud, don't throw it away, grow the leaves. You can consume the shoots and vine.

Wiki : The young leaves and vine tips of sweet potato leaves are widely consumed as a vegetable. Sweet potato leaves and shoots are a good source of vitamins A, C, and B2 (Riboflavin), and according to research done by A. Khachatryan, are an excellent source of lutein.

It is quite a cute project to do with your children. It is great to teach them about being self-sufficient as well. They should be encouraged to eat what they grow. Although, please bear in mind that potato leaves are poisonous. Sweet potato leaves on the other hand, are edible. It is pretty interesting to know that although both are called 'potatoes', they are not exactly the same species.

2 comments:

Elmer said...

It's a main ingredient of our regular salad in the Philippines.

I use the plant to hasten the maturity of freshly harvested compost as well.

VOXI said...

Unfortunately we cannot eat them but we could genetically modify them and then we could eat them, I don't recommend that we genetically modify anything

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