The other day, Kathy came across a recipe for a sweet potatoe dish that sounded quite good. So, I suggested that we try it for Thanksgiving.

She said that we might be able to find sweet potatoes in Grand Rapids. Confused, I stated that we buy them all of the time right here in Lowell. To which she replied that those are really yams.

Well, since I was the one who was going to be shopping for sweet potatoes, I decided to do a little web search. Maybe I could find a picture of a sweet potatoe. That would be very helpful.

Well, my first hit gave me a web site at Texas A&M entitled “the difference between sweet potatoes and yams. I figured that these people probably knew what they are talking about so here goes.

What most people call yams are really sweet potatoes. In fact, I would dare say that most people in the US and Canada have never seen a yam. I know that I haven’t.

Yams are not at all like a sweet potatoe. They come mainly from Africa and can be up to 8 feet in length and weigh up to 70 lbs.

Yams have a very tough skin and need to be cooked before they can be peeled. The meat of a yam is very stringy and quite starchy. Processing a yam for consumption might take several days.

Of course, the American consumer doesn’t help the confusion when they refer to sweet potatoes as yams. Nor does the American food processors as they often refer to sweet potatoes as yam sweet potatoes.

But, regardless, I am now quite sure that I will be able to try out this new sweet potatoe dish without having to search through exotic markets in Grand Rapids.