Process
How could it be sweeter?
You can’t know the shape of a sweet potato until it’s unearthed.
What you get when you dig up a Beniharuka sweet potato will vary based on the soil it was grown in, how it was cultivated, and how it is prepared. Over forty years of experience have taught us to put time and care into the growing process, taking a hands-on approach and working directly with the leaves and soil.
This yields a tender potato full of natural sweetness that is sure to capture your heart from the first bite.
Planting
Soil is the cradle for Beniharuka, where they live and are nourished, so naturally it is directly linked to their quality. Research and development is essential for soil improvement, and to that end we develop our own fertilizer rich in microorganisms to optimize the ecosystem in which our Beniharuka grow. We constantly monitor the conditions of the soil in order to make necessary adjustments, and incorporate natural techniques such as using oats to aid in pest control. Instead of planting offshoots from last year’s harvest, which is inexpensive but can lead to quality loss and crop disease, we obtain our plants from agricultural researchers who specialize in breeding healthy specimens to ensure you get the best quality sweet potato.
Curing
Once our Beniharuka are harvested, they are moved to our curing facility that can accommodate 100 tons of sweet potatoes in the optimal conditions. When some of the sweet potatoes are damaged during the harvest, storing them in a hot and humid climate promotes the growth of a cork layer under the skin of the potato to protect and heal it. The heat and humidity must be constantly monitored and adjusted, and dissipated at the right time so that the flavor of the sweet potatoes is not adversely affected. Keeping our Beniharuka within the ideal healing conditions is both an art and a science, and our reward for this careful attention is the most delicious sweet potato.
Aging
Though there are many kinds of sweet potatoes, Beniharuka is unique due to the way its sweetness is enhanced during the aging process. Rather than through additives or preservatives, this sweetness comes about naturally from the transformation of starch into maltose by the beta-amylase enzyme when the sweet potatoes are kept in the proper conditions: low temperatures of 13-15 degrees Celsius, paired with high humidity of roughly 90%. The curing process allows Beniharuka to withstand long periods of aging, resulting in the naturally sweetest sweet potato possible.