There is an area in Okinawa that grows the best tasting sweet potato. It's appropriately named the beni imo which means 'purple sweet potato'. Many kinds of processed foods use beni imo, such as Japanese-style and Western-style sweets and ice cream. Beni imo ice cream is a favorite of the Okinawan people.
Beni imo farmers stalls can be found on the country roads running through the sugarcane fields of Yomitan, a farming community located on the west coast of Okinawa along the beautiful East China Sea. Farmers sell their potatoes at unmanned stalls along the road, and the price for a bag of these delicious sweet potatoes is posted at each stall. There is a basket to leave your money. It's all on the honor system. No one is watching you. Why can't we do this in the United States I asked myself?
The Okinawans even have a slang term using the words beni imo. To be called a beni imo is to be called a redneck, basically a farmer of the soil. I think it is more a term of affection given from one Okinawan to another, meaning that you are a person of the land. Kind of like being called a redneck by another redneck.
I would bet that the Okinawans even have their own version of a Gretchen Wilson. So let me hear a big hell yeah from the beni imo boys like me....hell yeah.
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