Sweet Potatoes

The sweet potato harvest came in recently. They are a quarter a pound
at Wal-Mart, and about the same at other grocery stores. I, of
course, picked up a supply. Sweet potatoes are the perfect grad
student food. I put them in the Crock Pot when I go to school, and
eat them when I get back.

As I was getting my potatoes, an old black lady was also stocking up.
She was not bothering to use the little flimsy produce bags, but was
instead filling up grocery bags with sweet potatoes. This was a wise
move on her part; when I took my potatoes to the register the bag
broke. I estimate that she had over 50 pounds of sweet potatoes in
her grocery cart. Economic crisis or not, she and/or her family will
eat well, and cheaply, for the next few weeks.

This little incident certainly provides perspective on the current
difficulties. In any other time, an 'economic crisis' implied that
you had real difficulty purchasing enough food to keep your family
alive. No matter how bad things get, we will not be in that
situation. Even at their normal price of a dollar a pound, nobody is
too poor to buy 20 pounds of sweet potatoes a week, and that is a lot
of nutrition.