Nancy Hall Sweet Potato

The Nancy Hall sweet potato is a 10 – 20 cm long, oblong shaped potato with a tan to golden or slightly pinkish colored skin. The flesh is yellow. It is described as having a moist, yet firm flesh with a good flavor. This variety is well suited to being grown with organic methods. Historically, production has been greatest in the southeastern United States in Rutherford County, North Carolina; Marietta, Georgia; and Paris, Tennessee. Traditionally, Nancy Hall Sweet Potatoes were cured for several weeks in curing sheds, meaning that after the harvest, sweet potatoes would be left in a warm and humid environment for several weeks to develop their flavor and sweetness. Farmers would pay to house and store their sweet potatoes in hot houses, typically heated by kerosene or wood stoves. This was a once common practice in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The sweet potato is considered to have been brought to the United States by Christopher Columbus from South or Central America, and was widely established by the 1700s. Records indicate the sweet potato was grown by colonists in Virginia as early as 1648. During colonial times (1492 -1763), the sweet potato was a staple food in the Southeast. The sweet potato was then used for many functions, and also as a primary ingredient in beers and breads. By 1919, advertisements described the Nancy Hall variety as one of the most popular varieties in the Southern US and Puerto Rico. The variety was so popular that a ‘Nancy Hall Sweet Potato Jubilee’ was celebrated in Paris, Tennessee in 1939. During the 1930s and 40s, according to George Dellinger from George’s Plant Farm in Martin, TN, ‘(i)t was the ONLY sweet potato available.’ The Beauregard sweet potato, introduced by the University of Louisiana in 1987, and later the Covington sweet potato from North Carolina State University in 2005, quickly replaced Nancy Hall sweet potatoes on the commercial market. While both universities are working to preserve the Nancy Hall variety and other heritage breeds in order to maintain their genetics, this heirloom breed has become quite rare today. Today, Nancy Hall is grown exclusively by home gardeners and small specialty growers. This means that this variety is planted, purchased, and consumed less, and the knowledge, tastes, and traditions associated with it are not being transmitted to future generations.