This week we explore sweet potatoes (peak availability September-December). Sometimes the best way to understand what something is, is to start from what it isn’t. And the best way to nerd out on a sweet potato is by starting here: a sweet potato is not a potato. It is not a potato that happens to be sweet. It is not even closely related to a potato. Not a distant auntie. Not a twice-removed cousin. Potatoes, one of the members of the nightshade family, have more in common with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants than they do with sweet potatoes.