HEPHZIBAH, Ga. (WJBF) – Joseph Doyle is a farmer in Hephzibah, Georgia, that specializes in growing sweet potatoes.
“I grew up in a farm down in Burke County. My family has a farm down in Burke County, so I’ve been farming all my life,” said Doyle.
It was around 2014 that he started to notice some of his potatoes looked a little different than the others.
“We have some that look like ducks. We have some that look like teddy bears,” said Doyle.
Doyle has a wide array of interesting looking sweet potatoes. Once spuds are grown, he makes sure to mold them, take pictures, and put them on display: something he takes very seriously.
“They’re just like my children. I get up at night and go into the room and look at them, call my godmother, we talk about them, she name them and we just have fun with it,” said Doyle.
The sweet potatoes definitely get a reaction from people in the community.
“A lot of them say ‘wow’, they never seen it before,” said Doyle.
Doyle is so serious about his sweet potato art, he’s even grown his own farmhand, just in case he decides to start doing the art full-time.
“This is Benny. Benny is taking over the farm and I am going to do the artwork,” said Doyle.
For Valentine’s Day, Doyle wanted to display a pair of kissing sweet potato sweethearts.
“It’s a man and a woman. They grew together from April till October and they fed on each other and that’s what loves does. When I first pulled them up, I held both of them in the palm of my hands and I said ‘wow’, but what I’d like to say to all of us is that we need to get together and love each other this way,” said Doyle.
Doyle hopes that seeing the two kissing potatoes bring people together.
“I hope it brings us together on both ends. We need to get together especially in the times that we’re living in now,” said Doyle.
Joseph Doyle considers himself blessed to have such a fun hobby. The fact that he’s seen so many different sweet potatoes over the years to him is a gift from God.
“I’ve done good. I’m a very caring person, giving, and also a lot of my product that I grow, I give it away and so I guess he’s returning my blessing,” said Doyle.
Joseph Doyle has big plans for the future. He wants to launch a website soon. While, right now, he’s splitting his time between farming and potato photography, we had one more question about his future.
So after you retire and become an artist and Benny takes over the farm, what are the chances of me working out here?
“It’s a great chance. You’ll have to work that out with Benny, but I think he’d be glad to hire you,” said Doyle.
