In our area on the Huaibei plain , autumn was the busiest season for harvesting in a year ,and what's more important , probably it was in that season that the peasants here could fill their stomachs in the early 1960s . After most crops got in and were nearly eaten up , all the peasants began to dig sweet potatoes in the fields , only upon which they could depend to be alive in the most time to come in the year . The peasants would eat the fresh sweet potatoes just dug in the fields , three meals a day , in autumn ,the ones stored in cellars in winter and the ones cut to pieces and then dried in spring . Many people once said in common : Every day we have to drink sweet potato soup ,eat sweet potato buns ,and we can't live without sweet potatoes . As for us students in school ,the food became much easier than before .Every Sunday afternon when we returned to school from home , each of us brought a big bag full of sweet potatoes for a whole week . Every meal we enjoyed the steamed hot sweet potatoes . It was not long before this situation was changed .After the Spring Festival when the new term began , most of the sweet potatoes stored in cellars either had been eaten up or became bad ,unable to be eaten again . We had to eat the dried pieces of sweet potatoes after being steamed or the buns made of sweet potato flour . Even if they had mildewed , we could not bear to throw them away because the food