WHAT MAKES THOSE SWEET POTATOES GROW LIKE THAT?

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I wouldn’t dare write a story about love and not include our love for the all mighty sweet potato.

Our first sweet potato ever. 

 Baked, light and fluffy, rich and earthy.

We put focused love into our incredibly prolific garden so we had more than enough freshness flowing through our kitchen.  The sweet potato was one of our best, and most loved crops every year. Our sweet potatoes took on  a life of their own.  

Some grew a large as footballs or soccer balls. 

One grew 37” long.  

One grew in a heart shape like the holy trinity.  

One grew in the shape of a bird.  

One grew like a human heart with ventricles and arteries.
 One grew with a slit like a yoni!

Sweet potato bars were common at our house, of course with a buffet of toppings.  Quinn and I were both big on toppings, feeling that condiments are really what diversifies and enhances each dish.

Enjoy this gallery of some of our favorites prepared at the Garden of Eden over the years.

• Baked right in the coals of the fire to a fluffy and sweet perfection

• Hash browns served with eggs on top of salad greens

The final yummy plate of dankness....fresh garden greens, sweet potato hash browns. sauteed onion, broccoli, peppers and mushrooms, poached egg, hollandaise sauce....and a little chipotle on the side!!! Now that's a dank Sunday brunch!

• Made into sweet potato fries with specialty dipping sauces
• Fried in slices with chutney, spicy chipotle sauce, cinnamon and salt
• Mashed and rolled into food balls with nuts and dates
• Mashed - of course!
• Blended into our home made ice cream base
• Baked into muffins, breads, pancakes, cakes and pies

OMG!!! Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Pancakes, topped with mulled apple cider fruit, cinnamon spice whipped cream sauce and candied nuts. To live for!!!

Bite-size sweet potato pie topped with fresh banana, cinnamon spiced whipped creaminess and candied nuts.

• Dehydrated with herbs for raw crackers
• Added to soups

Sweet potato soup. This one of our many versions created with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and chipotle, topped with chives and candied nuts.. Sweet, spicy, hotness!!

• Made into chips for nachos
• Added to our cheesecakes
• Fried skins with herbed oil or sour cream

Garden of Eden sweet potato skins topped with fresh homemade guacamole, homemade garden salsa, chipotle sour cream and home sprouted sprouts.........mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

These are sweet potato greens - we eat these too!

A sneak peak of what is inside this sweet potato green, raw nut pate dolmas. A curried, nut based mixture with cranberries and all the spices, topped with freshly shredded coconut, in a sesame/olive oil lemony sauce.

• Baked for a  sweet potato bar with a rainbow of toppings

Mmmmmm, the season's first sweet potato topped with butter, raw honey, dried cranberries, walnuts, chipotle sauce,homegrown handmade rosemary olive oil, sesame seeds, hemp seeds, salt, pepper, and sour cream on the side for those who wished to indulge.

• Added to salad

Sweet Potato Salad: This is the sauteed sweet potato and apple topping for the salad greens. Flavored with salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, chipotle peppers and cream.

Top those fresh greens with the sauteed sweet potato/apple mixture, dried cranberries, red onion, red bell pepper crumbled feta, and candied nuts. Dress with Rosemary olive oil, hemp seed oil and balsamic vinegar. Mmmmmm!

Now, eat it with your fingers, no utensils to separate this lovely meal from your lovely mouth. With each pinch a different combination of ingredients is chosen, giving each mouthful a new and exciting twist of flavors.

Another Sweet Potato salad!

A plate to be shared (hahaha--aren't they all!) homegrown sauteed herbed sweet potato cubes, sauteed onions, garlic and peppers, poached egg, barbecue sauce, chipotle cream sauce, grated cheese and avocado.

Seaweed/Sweet potato greens salad with cucumbers, cranberries and sesame seeds, in a spicy soy sauce vinaigrette.

We preserved the sweet potatoes well into the winter, and served them at many of our events, as well as eating them ourselves on nearly a daily basis.  We came up with many dozens of ways to eat them.  Many people asked us to share our recipes, but of course we had none.  We just made all of our food up on the spot in moment-to-moment inspiration.

We did begin writing down our creations (sweet potatoes and their greens too)  to eventually publish a book, but it's now mixed in with all the abundance of media somewhere.  One day when that becomes a priority again, we shall recover them and share our homemade delights.

Right now here’s a simple one for you:

Kale, Sweet Potato Hash brown Salad

Bed of fresh greens
Sweet Potato Hash browns
Feta Cheese
Candied Pecans
Chopped Fresh Thyme
Dried Cranberries
Cilantro Chimichurri
Hemp Seeds

Dressing
Balsamic Vinegar
Apple Cider Vinegar
Liquid Aminos
Olive Oil
Hemp Oil
Ground Flax Seed
Fresh Lime Juice

Note:  Don't worry if you don't have all the ingredients for this recipe.  As with all of our dishes, just substitute something else in its place.  It won't be the same, but may be even more magnificent!

We all know what to add as the main ingredient, of course....

  L-O-V-E!!!

I like to layer my ingredients on top of each other instead of mixing them together. When the ingredients remain separate, I can grab a little pinch of different components to make every bite an experience of its own!

Quinn and I developed very high standards for that which nourished our bodies.  We had many people come through the Garden of Eden adding their food experience to our culinary reality over the years.  Generally Quinn or I would taste test and suggest adjustments to the flavors or techniques, give the thumbs up (or the thumbs down!) for food being shared in the Garden of Eden name.  Most everyone participating in the creation of food at the Garden of Eden left with skills and taste buds way more developed than when they arrived.  We've been told by several that their food experience away from the GOE has been ruined forever!

From my perspective there were only two chefs who came that did my tastebuds true justice.  @loveon cheffed for us many times over the years, upping her skills to Uber Dank standards, and became my catering buddy for many events--together we created real magic in the kitchen.  After leaving the GOE, @loveon traveled South America sharing her mouthgasmic skills, and is now feeding the family in Panama!

Jamie Busch had a huge variety of high-level skills in the culinary realms. He was hands down one of the best chefs I have ever known.  One year while Quinn was away from the Garden of Eden, Jamie treated me to multiple daily unbelievable food delights.  We began several food projects, and did catering together.   Here is a taste of where Jamie went from here:

At The GOE I felt free to explore and remember who I am as a unique star of Light and Love.   I pursued dreams of serving food to people in all manners. I worked as a facilitator of exclusive healing foods events & retreats, recipe developer with Brad’s Plant Based Foods, as private chef for Gwyneth Paltrow, invented a Belgian waffle made from Plantains, currently developing a farm/food business in southwest Florida for Jubilee Organics, and planning to launch a full online members community of healthy recipes for Life.

I am so grateful to breathe and know that I am the one I’ve been looking for and all I have to do is rise and shine!
Thank you Shellie and everyone at GOE 

Both Jamie and @loveon expanded their skills at the Garden of Eden and beyond.  The GOE was the perfect place to experiment with a large variety of fresh ingredients, and with lots of mouths to please.

We developed the unique "Uber Dank Pantry" line of preserved, one-of-a-kind delicacies.
We also coined the words "Mouthgasm!" and "Mobile Mouthgasm!"  
I can imagine you now understand why!

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This post may be as close as I get to putting out a book for now.  I hope you'll make some of these delights with the ingredients I shared (or versions of your own), and leave me a note about it.

Get in on the series from @saramiller about her own intriguing  personal experience at the @gardenofeden.

Check out the @gardenofeden website too.

Go with me on the journey toward Unconditional Love!

Stay Tuned for Part 36