The one-word spelling was officially adopted by the National Sweetpotato Collaborators in 1989. Sweetpotatoes (Ipomoea batatas) must not be confused with the equally unique and distinctive potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) which are also grown and marketed commercially in the US. And did you know that yams (Dioscorea sp.) are not even grown in the US? More than likely, you have never even tasted a yam in your life!
When you live in the nation’s leading sweet potato state, you think of unusual ways to use sweet potatoes.
As proof of my theory, the latest thing in the state’s fast-growing liquor industry is Covington sweet potato vodka, made from eastern North Carolina-grown sweet potatoes. On their website, the makers of Covington note that this is a natural, because “folks have been making potato vodka for the last 300 years.”