A pale, translucent-fleshed sweet potato that turns deep amber and syrupy-sweet when cured and baked. Grown for generations on the Eastern Shore, it is one of the oldest sweet potato cultivars still in cultivation in Black-American gardens.
The Hayman is a survival cultivar — held in Black Eastern Shore families through seed-saving when commercial agriculture pushed the orange Beauregard to dominance. Keeping it alive is keeping a lineage alive.
White-fleshed sweet potatoes carry less beta-carotene than orange types but a comparable fiber and potassium load — strong for the sodium-potassium balance that drives Black-American hypertension. Glycemic index is moderate (~54 boiled, higher baked), but the resistant-starch fraction rises sharply when the potato is cooked then cooled overnight: cooling retrogrades the starch into a form that resists digestion, blunts the glucose spike, and ferments to butyrate in the colon. Cure the root 7-10 days before eating to convert starch to sugar gently rather than eating it raw-starchy.
Cure at 80-85°F with high humidity for a week to develop sweetness, then store in a cool dark place. Bake whole at 375°F for an hour until it weeps caramel. For the glucose benefit, bake a batch, refrigerate overnight, and reheat — the cook-cool-reheat cycle locks in resistant starch.
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