Swiss organic sweet potatoes to save

This year, the entire sweet potato harvest from Rütihof farm was rejected from traditional supply chains: a few surface marks that don’t meet the usual aesthetic standards. Nothing that affects the flesh or flavor. In the distribution world, appearance often decides everything, even when the vegetable is perfect on the inside.

These organic sweet potatoes from Rütihof farm in Bünzen have no market. We’re rescuing them and bringing them to you, just like every flash rescue.

The farm combines organic market gardening and organic cattle farming, along with wheat and sweet corn in addition to sweet potatoes. Rütihof also places great importance on biodiversity: hedges planted between fields serve as refuges for birds and insects, wildflower meadows feed bees and other pollinators, and extensive grasslands, mowed sparingly, let nature reclaim its space between harvests.

• Store them in a dark, well-ventilated place, ideally between 13 and 16°C (a cellar, for example).
• Never below 10°C, and definitely never in the refrigerator: the cold causes black spots to appear and alters the taste within days.
• Use a breathable container (wooden crate, cloth bag) rather than a plastic bag or airtight container.
• Only wash them when you’re ready to use them.

Yes, these are tunnels left by wireworms that live naturally in the soil. During sudden droughts, they dig toward moisture and sometimes encounter developing sweet potatoes. By harvest time, the worms are gone, but the surface holes remain, without affecting taste, texture, or shelf life. With increasingly frequent droughts in Switzerland, this type of challenge is affecting more and more producers.