The Blessing of Food

We had some of the last sweet potatoes from the farmer's market for dinner tonight. Their vermilion skin and bright orange flesh are sweet and tasty like no others I purchase elsewhere throughout the year.  Our county's university extension gardening agent wrote about sweet potatoes in her local newspaper column published today.  I learned from reading her article that sweet potatoes belong to the Morning Glory family.  They root at the points where the vine touches the soil.  I also learned that I've been storing my sweet potatoes incorrectly all of these years.  The gardening agent wrote that sweet potatoes are a Southern crop and they do not like the cold, even in the refrigerator.  She recommended storing them on top of the refrigerator instead.  Our sweet potatoes are now in a bowl on our kitchen counter, and I must say that I like them better there.  Now, I can enjoy looking at their smooth skin and beautiful color until they become supper.  As I ate my sweet potato tonight, I reflected with gratitude that we have such healthy, locally grown food to enjoy for our meals and that we have food at all.  Television news stories last night and tonight have told of the increasing cost of preparing a Thanksgiving dinner and how much more difficult it is this year for people to afford to prepare one without the assistance of food pantries.  In a country as great as ours, it saddens me deeply that people should have to be uncertain whether there will be enough food to feed their families. I pray that everyone who is hungry tomorrow will have a meal.  Now, that would be a Happy Thanksgiving.