OUR Story

Every summer as a little girl, I would visit my grandma, Irma Slade, in Ahoskie, North Carolina. She cooked the best southern food I ever tasted and she had a sweet tooth like no other. Of all the desserts she would make, my favorite, that’s right, was her sweet potato pie. In my family, her sweet potato pie was the best and the ‘Slade Pie’ became famous throughout the whole town. She never followed a recipe with measurements for the ingredients. Everything was according to taste mixed with a whole lot of love. When I learned to make them, they became highly sought after in all of Prince George’s County!

SWEET POTATO HISTORY
The sweet potato, or Ipomoea batatas, is a delicious and nutritious root vegetable that grows easily in the South because of the warm climate. West African captives, who were brought to the United States as slaves, used the word ayame. Over time that name was shortened down to the term yam. Whole sweet potatoes were roasted outdoors over fire for meals, and eventually pies were created for the plantation owners. After emancipation, when African American cooks gained more access to their own equipment and refined ingredients, they continued the tradition of baking with sweet potatoes – especially the pie.