This was so successful last year, we did it again. Our N.C. Cooperative Extension
Brunswick County Center team and 4-H members participated in the recent Brunswick County Fall Festival. While all the other booths were passing out loads of candy, we passed out nature’s “dirt candy” -- sweetpotatoes. There were lots of amused faces from both trick-or-treaters and their parents.

We asked over 580 people who stopped by our booth if they would like “sweetpotato or candy?” We really weren’t surprised when 57% picked the sweetpotato. What would you choose?

The Fall Festival is an annual community event hosted by the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department at the Government Center in Bolivia. There were lots of things for families to do including costumes, scary tours, exploring emergency vehicles and other fun Halloween activities. Each of the county departments are encouraged to have a booth to pass out information about their services and (of course) candy.

When our N.C. Cooperative Extension team began planning how we could participate in this event last year, we wanted to showcase all of the many opportunities our office offers county residents. These include 4-H and youth programs, nutrition and healthy eating, horticulture and agriculture. We so enjoyed surprising people and sharing information about this healthy NC agricultural product, we had to do it again this year.

We aren’t the only people that give out potatoes for trick-or-treat. A recent Wall Street Journal article shared stories from around the nation about people giving out potatoes instead candy. The idea seems to have started over 20 years ago when a Pennsylvania man wanted to bring a little fun and “trick” back into Halloween. Some youth consider it a real treat to get a potato amongst all that candy. It did seem to bring delight and conversation to our booth.

But, we didn’t just pass out potatoes, we passed out North Carolina’s official state
vegetable: the sweetpotato. North Carolina is the number one producer of
sweetpotatoes in the United States. Over 350 commercial sweetpotato farmers in NC
harvested over 86,500 acres of sweetpotatoes last year. The average acre yields 16,600 pounds of sweetpotatoes (that’s over 726,000 tons of sweetpotatoes)!
Note: this is not a typo (and Spellcheck really doesn’t like it) but, I am spelling
sweetpotatoes as one word, not two. The NC Sweetpotato Commission has a mission to encourage people to think of the word sweetpotato as a noun. This means that “sweet” is not an adjective describing the potato. This is different than a potato which uses adjectives like white, red or russet to describe an entirely different vegetable.  Sweetpotatoes are not just sweet white potatoes.

N.C. Cooperative Extension passed out over 400 pounds of “dirt candy” at the Fall
Festival. We appreciate the Food Bank of Central and Southeastern North Carolina
donating these locally grown sweetpotatoes.

Keeping with the theme, the 4-H youth passed out a coloring pack containing crayons
and a drawing of a sweetpotato to be colored. There was also a QR code for
sweetpotato recipes. If you weren’t at the Fall Festival, you can get these recipes along with sweetpotato facts at go.ncsu.edu/sweetpotatorecipe

In addition, the 4-H youth also passed out Monster Bags that they had assembled. These bags contained craft supplies to encourage kids to make their own “monster” to promote creativity (and perhaps eat less candy). If you have photos of the Fall Festival, our sweetpotatoes, what you did with the sweetpotatoes or a monster we encourage you to post on our Facebook page.

Resources:

https://ncsweetpotatoes.com/blog/sweetpotato-is-one-word-sign-the-petition/

https://ncsweetpotatoes.com/sweetpotatoes-keep-you-moving/

Syracuse is a Family and Consumer Science team member and can be reached at N.C. Cooperative Extension, Brunswick County Center 910-253-2610 or by email at clsyracu@ncsu.edu