From post- Obon period (ended in 16th) to the middle of September, we have a bit of vegetable shortage. To be more precise, there are plenty of supplies of everyday vegetables, such as cabbages, tomatoes, or green leaves, if you don’t mind their outrageous price tags. Why? Probably because now it is a time for farmers to shift from one crop to another.

Instead of vegetables that are usually sold everywhere, there are ‘half-finished’ crops available for us on market to get out of this pinch.

Stems of sweet potato are one of them.  They are simply stems of potatoes that have been cull out to fatten the potatoes underground.

Our mothers and fathers’ generation would detest them. They were fed with these types while the severe food shortage during/after WWII. Even now we still have this humble vegetable, though the stems  is said to have been improved to be softer and edible.

Could I raise a question about this vegetable? Is it too greedy to wish potato stems to be freebees for those who buy a certain amount of vegetables, say, more than JPY1, 000 or something? Isn’t it unfair that four cucumbers or ten okras grown with care and culled (meaning useless, isn’t it?)  stems cost the same: JPY100.