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Digging an Oven in the Field  by Dorothy H
I am a big fan of sweet potatoes. In my hometown, we have various ways to serve the sweet potatoes. Sometimes we make them into
a dessert; sometimes we fry them. But here, in this small town of Jingxi, my local friends taught me a new way of serving my favorite sweet potatoes. The local people do their sweet potatoes in a kiln. They call it hongshuyao (红薯窑). My Zhuang friends tell me the best time to have it is during summer (June, July) and autumn (November, December).

It was early December, as I went to the village with some friends, the village teenagers had already started to prepare.

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Zhuang friends work together to build the kiln.

Jingxi, Guangxi
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Roaring flames toast the sweet potatoes inside!

Jingxi, Guangxi

First they build a small kiln (functioning like oven) by using dry earth. They stack up the dry earth and it forms into a kiln. The opening of the kiln faces the direction of the wind. It took us about 45 minutes to build the kiln, the diameter of one and half feet wide and about two feet tall.

After that, we started to burn the twigs which we put inside the kiln to heat up the whole kiln, until the earth turned reddish hot. The kiln is too big, so it took longer time to heat up the whole kiln. We kept the fire burning for an hour and a half. My friends traveled a few times to the bushes nearby to collect some wood to keep the fire burning. We were singing songs and chatting while waiting for the kiln to heat up. I am a city girl, I was always hoping to experience cooking in the wild, and now, I have made it!! Yippee!!

Finally, my friends stopped collecting wood and stuffing it in the kiln. They let the fire die down. We are ready to cook the sweet potatoes!! Soon after fire died down, we started to put the potatoes in the kiln. And then, we used a log to smash down the reddish hot earth to cover the potatoes. We left the potatoes covered by the hot earth, to bake for about 45 minutes. While we were waiting for the potatoes to cook, I looked around the field. It was almost sunset. Farmers were already coming back from their field with their best friends the buffalos. It was a very nice and touching scene, as you see the Papa and Mama buffalos with their calves coming back. I quickly grabbed my camera and took as many pictures as I could.

After long hours of preparing and waiting, finally the sweet potatoes were ready!! We dug out the potatoes, and peeled off the skin. The smell is great!! Wow!! Till now, I still can’t forget the great moment and the taste of the sweet potatoes. And it is my very first time eating sweet potatoes in the field. Dear friends, if you have a chance to pay a visit, please do try these sweet potatoes in a kiln!!