I got home at nearly 9 last night 
but there was a lidl brochure waiting. They have 6 sweet potatoes for just under 7euros from today. Have sent hubby to get some!
@AngelaR !
Thanks @toryroo . I shall go there now!!!
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In Germany thus week Lidi is offering quince trees for not much more. I suspect they’d grow very well here - hoping Lidl (or French Aldi which offers baby fruit trees once or twice a year) might follow next year by offering a quince tree. They are addictive in fruit pies especially tucked in with a mainly apple pie.
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Me too so thanks for the info, @toryroo . As it happens, it lookslike the trolley with them on had only just been put out!
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Timing for Sweet Potato Slips:
- Spring is best: Plant after the last frost.
- Warm conditions: Minimum 70°F (21°C).
Steps:
- Select a sweet potato.
- Prepare a container with moist soil.
- Insert the potato partially.
- Keep warm and moist.
Patience is key: It may take weeks for sprouts to appear.
I decided rather belatedly to report back on this year’s sweet potato experience in case anyone has comments.
- As mentioned earlier, I tried to get slips from some of last year’s crop by suspending in water on cocktail sticks. Result - total failure
- Following this I went into Point Vert/Ma Maison as I thought I’d missed the Lidl ones that usual appear in spring sometime. Bought 2 plants for just under 7 euros each
- Planted said plants near the bottom of a big pot, carefully covered with nice soil/compost, kept watered, coiled the leaves around when they grew long, put more compost in, repeated through the season. Result - 1 small sweet potato per plant
- Notified by the ever-helpful @toryroo , the usual plants appeared later in Lidl - 6 for just under 7 euros.
- Planted said plants in the vegetable plot and completely neglected them due to various health issues. They then became covered with a vile invasive grass species and disappeared. I thought they’d be hopeless but tried digging where the plants had been. Result - decent crop of sweet potatoes from each plant
I sure there’s a moral to this somewhere. 
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Yes the moral is you’ll probably only get about a kilo per plant and as you can buy a kilo for 2.99 much of the year, don’t spend 7 Euros 
As you know my slips were an utter failure as well. I think both our houses are too cold! My cunning plan for the spring is we all send @wozza a sweet potato as he seems the only one to succeed, and he can be ever known as the SF slip man 
. Actually have I got that wrong, is it @hairbear ???
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Sorry just scrolled back and I think it may be @Griffin36 ???
If you’re thinking about something I said, it won’t be me, it’s the OH that did the sweet potatoes. She just bought a plant from a local garden centre, planted it and months later got lots of sweet potato from the one plant. A lot more than 1 Kg.
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@griffin36 was the one who did this a lot using the “suspend in water” method and had great experience. @wozza used the “half bury in damp compost” method for the first time (?) this year.
I harvested my sweet potatoes last week (grew a white variety and the more traditional one). You can get very good returns on a single plant. I will definitely keep some to start slips for 2025.
Chayote’s another good one to harvest around now (just before the frost), I bought one from Grand Frais, and got it germinating and planted up just after the frosts in early 2024. Needs some decent support, but you get a lot for your money, and they store well.
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I think you must be a great deal further south than me @Gareth2022 ! I imagine the colder, wetter climate in Normandie isn’t espectially favourable to sweet potatoes. However, given the amount of neglect I gave the cheap Lidl plants, they did quite well!
I’ve never tried chayote but potimarrons are a great favourite and grow reasonably well here.
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Never heard of them!
AngelaR, I’m in Nouvelle Aquitaine, so it perhaps makes a bit of difference, but I would have thought it possible to grow sweet potatoes without problems in Normandie.
Toryroo - It also goes by the name christophine, or Chayotte (two t’s) in French. It’s a very mild flavour a bit like a mild apple crossed with a cucumber and a summer squash… You can eat it raw, but it’s good in cooking too. I’ve strolled past a couple of French gardens over the years and seen people growing them, but it’s not something I come across often.
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They call them chouchou too. I think the juice is an irritant (?) and eating them raw can give you an upset stomach. A colleague of mine has gluts of them every year and says she can’t get rid of them, she brings help yourself bags of them to work. I was rather underwhelmed by them.
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These are the funny little mini SPs, I’m going to try potting them up tomorrow in the hope they’ll grow!!
It contains fibre like all vegetables, but I can’t see why it would cause an upset stomach unless someone is prone to that from eating fibrous food, and/or consumed too much.
Everyone has their preferences of course. I like them.
A tuber I like is oca (Oca du Pérou). It’s an easy one to grow. I’ll be harvesting mine next week. They store until the following year.
Pictures please Gareth! 
This is just what French people say about eating them raw. (Il paraît que…)