Stephanie Thomas of Baldwin digs up a row of sweet potatoes which she will eventually sell to local restaurants and The Merc.

This time of year, it accessorizes itself in brown sugar, pecans and marshmallows.

But underneath all that Thanksgiving jazz is a nutritional powerhouse that is comfortable being enjoyed a myriad of ways.

Yes, it’s sweet potato season.

And Stephanie Thomas is of the mind that if you haven’t had sweet potatoes of the non-candied variety, than you haven’t really had them.

They can be mashed, baked, curried, cut into fries, mixed into gnocchi, pureed into soup and featured in pies, biscuits and casseroles.

“Maybe some people are so used to having them caramelized that when they taste them another way, they’re a little surprised. It’s all up here,” she says pointing at her head, “people think it’s got to have sugar, and it really doesn’t.”

This time of year, the last way Phil Toevs is thinking of preparing his sweet potatoes is the candied way, though he can’t blame you if that’s the only sweet potato recipe in your arsenal.

“That’s the way everybody had them. I can guarantee you probably 97 percent of people only had sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving, and nobody cooked them any other time of the year because they didn’t know what to do with them,” he says. “A lot of people as they grow up, from my experience, you know, your familiarity with food is only as far as it was prepared for you when you were younger.”

Instead of buying marshmallows in bulk, Toevs, the chef at Wheatfields Bakery, dreams up ways to whip up locally grown sweet potatoes, like those he gets from Thomas’ Spring Creek Farm.

“It’s really accessible this time a year. They’re really cheap. They’re a versatile vegetable, and they’re something that’s really delicious,” says Toevs, who uses them in soups, empanadas and gnocchi at his restaurant. “You can add them to anything. It’s just a different flavor, you know.”

Toevs says that sweet potatoes can sub not only for potatoes in dishes, but also for pumpkin in autumn treats.

“In terms of consistency, yeah,” Toevs says. “If you ever find yourself around a sweet potato pie and a pumpkin pie at the same time, you’re going to find that consistency-wise they’re pretty much the same.”

Sweet potatoes vs. yams

Thomas joins George Washington in a long line of sweet potato farmers in the United States. Those early farmers’ nutritious crop helped keep early America going during harsh winters. Today, sweet potatoes can still make it through the winter if properly stored, Thomas says.

First rule of a winter’s worth of sweet potatoes? Curing.

Before her potatoes hit her stand at the Lawrence Farmers’ Market, the aisles of local grocers or the pantry of restaurants like WheatFields, they sit for days curing in Thomas’ living room at a temperature around 80 degrees. This process keeps them from sprouting before they’re ready to eat.

“If we didn’t cure them, they would start sprouting by the second or third week of December, because as it gets colder, then they have that pressure to procreate,” Thomas says.

After curing, Thomas says the potatoes can last for weeks, so long as they’re left in a cool, dark place, but not the fridge. Sweet potatoes don’t like to be below 45 degrees, she says, adding that 55 degrees is perfect.

Second rule of sweet potatoes? Sweet potatoes are not, nor will they ever truly be yams.

Sure they look similar, and the names are often used interchangeably, but they aren’t even remotely related. Sweet potatoes are perfect for the climate of the continental U.S., while yams are a tropical tuber that contain more starch and less vitamin A.

According to the Library of Congress, 95 percent of the 600 varieties of yams are grown within Africa. Back in the United States, because the confusion is so great between the two tubers, the United States Department of Agriculture requires that sweet potatoes labeled as “yams” also be labeled “sweet potatoes.”

Simple preparation

Thomas says that no matter how you label them, they’re one of her favorite foods, which might be why she plants more than 2,000 sprouts of sweet potatoes each spring.

Her go-to method to eat all those sweet potatoes? Simply baked.

“My favorite way is definitely to bake them in the oven until the caramel is dripping out and then make them into mashed potatoes with butter,” Thomas says. “I’m all about the food.”

Sweet Potato Recipes

Curry Sweet Potato Soup

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

2-1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, roasted and skinned

2 tablespoons curry powder

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon turmeric

Pinch ground cloves

Pinch allspice powder

1 teaspoon cardamom powder

1 teaspoon fennel powder

1 14 ounce can coconut milk

2 cups vegetable stock

Salt and pepper, to taste

Yogurt, as needed

Roast sweet potatoes in a 350-degree oven until soft, about an hour. Squeeze potato meat from the skins and set aside. Sauté onion in oil until soft. Add dry spices and sauté one minute. Add vegetable stock and sweet potatoes and stir to combine. Raise soup to a simmer over medium heat, then add coconut milk. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring regularly, then taste for salt and pepper. Puree soup in a blender or food processor until smooth. Garnish with fresh yogurt.

• Recipe by Phil Toevs, chef, WheatFields Bakery

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

2 pounds sweet potatoes, washed and roasted

2/3 cup ricotta cheese, drained

1/2 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch fresh ground black pepper

1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Pierce the potatoes with a knife or fork and bake in a 400-degree oven until tender, about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on size. Cool to room temperature. Remove the skins and save the meat in a mixing bowl. The skinned sweet potatoes should render at least 2 cups. Add the cheese, salt, cinnamon and pepper and mix by hand until well combined. Add the flour a 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough begins to form. Dust a working surface with some extra flour and place the dough in a ball on the surface. Portion the dough ball into six equal portions and roll a ball into a 1- to 2-inch rope. Cut the rope into pieces even with the width of the rope and roll the portions into rounds and place on a sprayed sheet pan. Continue until all the dough is formed.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the gnocchi in small batches and cook until they are firm to the bite, about 5 to 8 minutes, depending on the size of your gnocchi. Drain the dumplings using a slotted spoon and store on a sheet pan. Repeat until all the gnocchi are cooked off. You can use another pan or some foil to cover the finished gnocchi to keep them warm until service.

• Recipe by Lonnie Fisher, sous chef, WheatFields

Sweet PotatoBundt Cake 2

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 (15-ounce) cans sweet potatoes, drained and mashed (about 2 cups)

OR 2 cups cooked, mashed fresh sweet potatoes

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup flaked coconut

Confectioners’ sugar

Glaze (optional, see below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together butter and sugar in mixing bowl until blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in sweet potatoes and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in another bowl. Gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in pecans and coconut. Spray 9-inch bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour in batter. Bake in 350 degree oven 45 to 50 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes; invert cake onto serving platter. Dust cake with confectioners’ sugar or drizzle with glaze, as desired. Makes 16 servings.

Optional glaze: In small bowl, mix together 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, 2 tablespoons milk and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Drizzle over cooled cake.

• Recipe from sweetpotato.org

Sweet Potato and Pork Chop Casserole

2-3 sweet potatoes, thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

4 pork chops

Salt and pepper, to taste

Layer the sweet potatoes in a lightly greased 2 quart casserole with onion. Salt and pepper every other layer. Lay pork chops on top and bake at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

• Recipe from Stephanie Thomas, Spring Creek Farm.