by Kevon Browne
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): The St. Kitts Farmers Cooperative Society hosting Sweet Potato Mehlay focused on all the by-products that can be produced and sold from the tuberous root vegetable.
Representatives from the cooperative, Troy Flanders and Solomon Morton, were on the April 5 broadcast of WINN’s Island Tea to speak about the event.
“You come on out, and you will be pleasantly surprised at the amount of things you can bake. Man, there are things that you wouldn’t even imagine – sweet potato ice cream, sweet potato drinks… there are things that would be done that you would be amazed [by], and we just want to encourage everyone to come on out and support local farming,” said Morton during the interview.
Morton explained how the idea for the event was born.
“This idea was born out of trying to push a product that is beneficial to our country, our nation, to our people, to our health, and therefore I looked at the sweet potato, and I recognised that it has a lot of potential and it has a lot of benefits to us health-wise. It helps with our fibre intake; it helps with our skin tone; it helps with our hair colouring – everything. And therefore, I said we’re using it, but we are not using it with knowledge. We are just using it only because it’s there, “throw in the sweet potato in the pot.” No, the same way you make sure you get you nails done and you do that [and that] thing of your completeness and think of sweet potato.”
The cooperative thus challenged all to choose sweet potato over white potato, even when buying chicken and fries.
“I’ll dare challenge anyone – sweet potato is more beneficial, and it’s healthier than white potato. So when you got to pick up your chicken and chips or your chicken and fries, specify sweet potato wedges or sweet potato chips.”
Sweet Potato Mehlay will be hosted on Thursday, April 6, 2023, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Agro Strip (verge between Newtown playing field and TDC), where different varieties of sweet potatoes will be on display.
Some of the highlights of the event include:
Value Added Sweet Potato Products – Sweet potato fruit cake, sweet potato cookies, sweet potato wedges, conkie, sweet potato salad, sweet potato méals
Research data presentation on sweet potatoes
Sweet Potato Dish Competition
