Manilva Invaded by Monster Sweet Potatoes

Mother nature has a habit of surprising us, and never more so than when Jose Pascual and his wife Ana Maria, who run the greengrocers on the Sabinillas/Manilva road, visited their vegetable plot just recently.

It was a sunny day, and they were harvesting the latest crop of sweet potato (boniato) when they came across a veritable monster, weighing in at 18.4 kilos.

Jose told us this was not the only giant of the harvest - they had also unearthed a specimen weighing 14.6 kg. They were so big that it was no easy job to wrestle them from the ground, and Jose had to resort to a spade to dig them out.

So what is the secret to growing such massive vegetables? "some fertilizer and 4 or 5 waterings a day" said Jose.

Jose Pascual recollects in the past growing individual sweet potatoes of 4 and 5 kilos quite regularly, but he has never seen them anywhere near the size of these particular monsters.

The question begs to be asked just what Jose is going to do with the potato? "At first it will be on display at his shop, but we can't dismiss the possibility of it being sold".

And what of the future? Well, Jose has just planted his peas and broad beans, so I wonder if we'll see any champions amongst his next harvest?