[sunshineband]

The first frost here was on Sunday night/Monday morning, so before moving the yacon pots into the polytunnel I thought I'd best see if there was anything actually edible in them. I duly tipped one out onto a plastic sheet, and just look! There were 3kg of tubers, plus the top crown with new growth buds on it!!!!! 

The top has been trimmed back and potted up again, in a 5ins pot, to overwinter in the greenhouse at home and the compost saved to store tubers in, in a box, for a short while, in the garage at home.

We peeled one small tuber and ate it raw. Crisp like water chestnut with a flavour slightly like mooli with the bite and pear with the graininess. Making syrup from them will wait until we have harvested them all as I think it might be quite messy.

The tubers contain a sugar called inulin, which is also in Jerusalem Artichokes, so eating a lot at once may not be a good idea, although inulin does have some health benefits in that it is a prebiotic, and supports increased uptake of magnesium and calcium from your food, as well as being helpful for diabetics, being a sugar that is not digested by our systems.

All in all, good so far!

Anyone else harvesting yet?

[Tom Parrot]

Yes! I harvested mine this afternoon as they were showing signs of frost damage. Good harvest, and potted up the new shoots.
Apart from using as an alternative to water chestnuts, what else can be done with them?

[Growster...]

Wow!

You live and learn Sunny! Never even heard of them, and what a result!

Research needed asap!

[Tom Parrot]

Hello Growster,
Thank you for the compliment.
I'm over 65. But, I still like to try something different now and again.