Produce OASIS Tip of the Day

November 25 - Yam Selection Tips:

Good-quality yams will be firm and smooth-skinned. They should have few eyes, and those few eyes should be shallow. The coloring will include purple, deep-red and bright-orange.

Avoid product that is soft, wrinkled or has cuts in the skin. Yams with white streaks or spots on the inside will be pithy.

There are no true "yams" commercially marketed in the United States. Product labeled as yams are really sweeter varieties of sweet potato. You can tell the difference between the two by color. Sweet potatoes are colored similarly to true potatoes, while what we call yams are darker and more vibrantly colored.

Sweet potatoes and yams come from different species of plant in the family of morning glories, originating in separate corners of the world. What we commonly eat are sweet potatoes, which are native to the American tropics. True yams, which are native to Africa, weigh between two and eight pounds and have white to yellow flesh. Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, are generally yellow to deep orange. (Source: The Washington Post, 12/88))

OASIS has much more information on potatoes.

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