The Louisiana Yam
About Louisiana Yams
The Louisiana yam is an exceptional type of sweet potato bred to have a soft, moist flesh, to be sweet and flavorful and very high in beta-carotene or vitamin A value. The successful golden yams are the product of extensive research programs conducted by Experiment Station scientists of the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. Yams have been part of the landscape of Louisiana for more than 200 years, but it was not until 1937 that they began to be marketed nationally. Much of the creation of the Louisiana yam industry can be credited to an outstanding scientist, the late Dr. Julian C. Miller, and his colleagues in the horticulture department of Louisiana State University. They chose to call this moist-flesh sweet potato the Louisiana yam to distinguish it from the many other sweet potato varieties grown elsewhere at that time. Research efforts have continued, and several important varieties have been developed through cooperative efforts of scientists and Extension personnel of the LSU Agricultural Center with cooperation from producers and the Louisiana yam industry.
About Yams in General:
Yams are often mistakenly called sweet potatoes, and vice versa, but they are two different vegetables. The true yam is the tuber of a tropical vine, and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato. Rarely found in US markets, the yam is a popular vegetable in Latin American and Caribbean markets. Generally sweeter than than the sweet potato, this tuber can grow over seven feet in length.
Yams vs. Sweet Potatoes
