Japanese sweet potatoes -- a great farmers market find

One of the reasons I like shopping at the farmers market is that I don't need a list. I just see what's in season and what I end up getting drawn to. Then when I get home I look for a recipe that matches my in-season bounty. Today I was drawn to Japanese sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes but I'd never heard of this purple variety. The seller said they were dryer than regular sweet potatoes, which I noticed when I chopped them but they cooked up nice and soft. Then another stand was selling different vegetables for $2.50 a pound so I filled up a bag of small carrots, parsnip, onions and these cute little ozette potatoes (more varieties I've never heard of!).

When I got home I found this roasted root veggies recipe on another blog. I mixed olive oil, maple syrup and soy sauce in a baking dish. I didn't have ginger so I used garlic instead. After all the chopping, I cooked the veggies for 25 minutes and then added some Trader Joe's chicken sausage I had in the fridge, cooked it for 10 more minutes and that was it. It was really simple and wow, it turned out good if I do say so myself. The veggies are soft and the sweet potatoes are really sweet and full of flavor. I'll have to buy them again while they're in season. As long as I go back to the farmers market, because I won't find this kind of variety at the grocery store.