Last summer I tried growing sweet potatoes in canvas bags with the door at the bottom so you can pull out the potatoes when they're ready. Problem is I didn't bother pulling them out and dug them all out in October when they were basically popping up out of the ground. Think if I had pulled them out in September when I started to see the soil start to erupt on top, I'd had have a better crop. I read to let them dry out for a couple weeks before using them so the sugar could convert to whatever. I was so excited about my 1st crop of sweet potatoes, I handed them out to my neighbors who gladly took them. They ate them shortly thereafter and said they tasted just fine so I guess I didn't need to wait a couple weeks.
I did peel them, them baked them with some olive oil and seasonings. them bagged them up for the freezer. A couple small bags for individual meals and then a larger bag to use however I chose. The larger bag eventually went into my squash soup as I was searching thru the freezer for veggies that needed to be used up.
Next year I'll pull them out sooner and may decide to plant a couple more canvas bags worth of them as I love sweet potatoes. I do them up like a loaded baked potato with all the trimmings on top. YUMMMMMMMMM!!!!