Roast ‘em, bake ‘em, stick ‘em in a pie. The Magnolia State has a new state vegetable that’s delectable no matter how you prepare it – the sweet potato.
Gov. Tate Reeves signed Senate Bill 2383 into law, officially making the tasty tater Mississippi’s chief veggie.
But the sweet potato has had deep roots in the state long before SB 2382 passed, home to more than 170 sweet potato farms and the “Sweet Potato Capital of the World” in Vardaman. Mississippi ranks third in the U.S. for domestic sweet potato production, producing more than $100 million worth of the vegetable each year.
It’s also home to the venerable Sweet Potato Queens, a women’s organization that spans 20 countries and is based in Jackson. In fact, one of the bill’s proponents, Rep. Jon Lancaster, R-Chickasaw, was asked if the Queens have given their stamp of approval to the legislation.
“I haven’t talked to them, but I can only assume they’d be on board,” Rep. Lancaster said on the House floor.
Lancaster also fielded hard-hitting questions like how many sweet potatoes it takes to make a pie, where the best sweet potatoes are grown in Mississippi, and the technical difference between a sweet potato and a regular potato. For what it’s worth, a sweet potato isn’t a potato at all but rather a root, while a potato is a tuber.
The governor’s signature will add the sweet potato to the Magnolia State’s growing list of state symbols, such as the blueberry being named the state fruit two years ago, the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle being tabbed the state sea turtle and the American Quarter Horse being cemented as the state horse in 2024.
The sweet potato will officially become Mississippi’s state vegetable on July 1, 2025.
