Sweet ‘taters are for people and deer!

Evening Times Outdoors Columnist It’s nice when a food is good for people and can also be put to use in the wild game world.

Sweet potatoes are very nutritious and have the most vitamins of any vegetable in the world.

And they also taste very good! Sweet tatters can be baked, fried, put in casseroles, and prepared many more delicious ways. That being said, deer and other wildlife also love them and they are a favorite to use as bait around a deer stand. That being said, where do they come from, outside of a grocery store?

Matthews Sweet Potato Farm is close to Wynne on Crowley’s Ridge.

This is a large 3000 acre family owned farm that grows 1004 acres of sweet potatoes with the remainder of the ground divided into growing corn, beans, and milo. The original farm was started by a great-great, grandmother on 40 acres in 1885. Over the years the farm has grown and has remained in the family. Grand-daddy Browne, BB and Samantha, and grandson Garrett Matthews, who is 5th generation, are the present owners and farmers who live on the property. They all grew up here and it’s easy to see their love of the land. The men folks enjoy hunting and fishing and Samantha enjoys competitive horse back riding. They are the Cross County Farm Family of the Year for 2019-20. This is a very large operation with specialized equipment and seven large warehouses.

At peak seasons, between planting and harvesting, they employ 90 people.

People living in Crittenden County are familiar with farms that grow cotton, beans, milo, corn, and rice, but very few have been exposed to sweet potato farming. In this day of mechanized farming with large equipment and small work crews, tater farming is a contrast, requiring a large work crew. Almost all of the farming requires hands, on from planting to harvest. It starts with slips or young plants being hand planted behind the tractor, the weeds are chopped by hoe, and finally the harvest, where the potatoes are picked up by hand and sorted into sizes and quality while several employees are riding behind the tractor with a special plow that brings up the potatoes to the surface.

After harvesting, usually starting in August, the potatoes are brought into a large processing building where they are washed and sorted into the different sizes and quality that determines the price. Number ones demand the highest price and are usually found in restaurants keeping a nice steak company. They are followed by jumbos, Number twos, culls, and finally deer food which are muddy and rotten. The culls are used by canneries to be made into canned goods. Nothing goes to waste. The different taters are graded and stacked in pallets by hand and stored in an air conditioned building at 55 to 60 degrees until purchased by the buyer.

Sweet potatoes waiting to be processed are stored in 40-pound boxes with the mud still on them and they are good for about a year.

Number ones usually sell for about $20 a 40 pound box. A box or more may be purchased directly at the farm.

Each potato slip produces five or more potatoes and the usual harvest is 9,000 pounds per acre. On a good year, Matthews Sweet Potato Farm will produce 21,850,000 pounds. Every one is graded and boxed by hand! This requires a large labor force who are Hispanic and have been coming to the farm for years.

They are documented and the farm supplies living quarters that are audited by the state each year and comply with GAP rules. A certification is required for a farm to sell produce.

Matthews sells to large companies like Walmart and Proper Producer plus places like the Tomato House in Memphis on Scott Street. When the farm first expanded, they ran a route delivering sweet potatoes to different buyers.

Everybody enjoys a good sweet potato baked with a lot of butter, but French fries are also great, especially if you cut your own fries off fresh potatoes. For some reasons, they are hard to find in grocery stories.

Just do your own and leave the skin on. A new term being used to describe them is “Dirt Candy.”

The potatoes can be purchased directly from the farm starting at $50 for a bin and large amounts can be obtained at a very reasonable price. Matthews also sells deer corn at a lower price than in town stores, but since you have to drive to get it, get enough to last the season.

For availability and price call the farm at 870-2380244.

Now, what does tater farming have to do with hunting and fishing? Sweet potatoes make excellent deer feed and once the deer find them, it is very attractive. Some of the largest deer have been taken on potatoes. If possible, it’s good to feed the deer before hunting season to supply vitamins and nutrients on a growing deer and their horns. On a negative note, wild hogs are also crazy about this bait.

This is summer and the fishing has really slowed down with early morning and late evening being the only good times to fish.

Wapanocca is very poor fishing with warm water and a lot of moss. Tilden Rodgers needs a restocking of the catfish, but the faithful fishermen are still catching a few and some small bream. There have been some monstrous carp taken out on dough balls.

Horseshoe continues to produce small- to medium- sized crappie, but the bass have really slowed down. With the Mississippi River continuing to fall, Midway Lake should start to get good as the water clears and settles.

It’s hot, so take the kids in the cool part of the day and catch some fish. Size is really not important. Be sure to use plenty of bug spray because all the unwanted bugs are hungry.

If you have a topic you would like discussed, please send it to Papa Duck. There is always a need for stories and pictures. Game warden Andy wants some more questions. Help him out.

Taxidermy is slow this time of year, so bring those trophies out of the freezer and we will take care of them quickly, at a reasonable rate, and you will be pleased with the quality of the mount.

Papa Duck Lakeside Taxidermy 870-732-0455 or 901-482-3430 jhcriner@hotmail.com