Yeah Christa these grow from arial tubers or a piece of the tuber you dig up. The arial tubers take a few years ti get this size. I like to leave the top of the tuber to replant once it sprouts. A bigger starting piece has more stored energy to push out a large vine which then in turn takes energy and sends it back into the root. They are so easy to grow it is strange they are not more common.
Wow, with you holding that thing, it looks huge compared to it sitting on the ground. That would feed a big family and it keeps well. It is definitely worth growing. Will it grow from a piece of the tuber or do you need an aerial potato?
I know they are slimey when they are just cut up but this goes away when cooked, well this type does.They taste just like potato with fibre like a sweet potato.In side mine look like this
They are very popular in Vietnam and the trick in prep is to grate them to deal with the slime and slipperiness. They are very slippery once peeled! As I recall, and have made, a soup is the standard cuisine recipe --(Canh Khoai Mo). It's quite nice in a congee sort of way. We didn't like them any other way.
That was a lot of soup to eat.
Fortunately, the yams other claim to fame is to make ice cream. Ube ice cream -- a Philippine hack, I think.
Dioscorea alata is very hardy. Mine keeps coming up every year to climb over what it can find.
I don't eat starches now -- but I rather liked cassava when I did. It is so very easy to grow and harvest. Also makes a great hedge anywhere you insert the 'sticks'. Cassava is a better veg than the arrowroots.
Taro is very popular around here because of Pacifika folk. Supplies from Fiji -- and the Africa shop sells it in crate fulls. I find it not as easy to grow as purple yams. Requires more water.
Us Irish and the humble spud have nothing on Taro eaters.
While I've passed on the root veg and tuber starches I do love and eat Jerusalem artichokes. Nutritionally they are the bee's knees.
Christa I think when you cook them for 30mins the tanin % drops a fair bit. I picked a huge one last year that was 15kg and we ate the whole thing and some smaller ones.This one took ages to dig up.
Hey Roger these are Dioscorea alata,or ube in the philipines. They taste similiar to spuds with a little more fibre. We bake them and mash them and add them to caseroles etc. I can cut a chunk off and they seal up so they last until they resprout in spring. Need to plant a kilo or so for them to grow this large. The one in your photo is the same species just in the white variety not sure if they tste the same. I am not a great person to judge taste as I like anything, a product of getting clipped around the ears if I said anything bad about the food I was given as a kid.
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Yeah Christa these grow from arial tubers or a piece of the tuber you dig up. The arial tubers take a few years ti get this size. I like to leave the top of the tuber to replant once it sprouts. A bigger starting piece has more stored energy to push out a large vine which then in turn takes energy and sends it back into the root. They are so easy to grow it is strange they are not more common.
Wow, with you holding that thing, it looks huge compared to it sitting on the ground. That would feed a big family and it keeps well. It is definitely worth growing. Will it grow from a piece of the tuber or do you need an aerial potato?
No wonder the islanders like this sort of food.
I know they are slimey when they are just cut up but this goes away when cooked, well this type does.They taste just like potato with fibre like a sweet potato.In side mine look like this
A true purple.
That was a lot of soup to eat.
Fortunately, the yams other claim to fame is to make ice cream. Ube ice cream -- a Philippine hack, I think.
Dioscorea alata is very hardy. Mine keeps coming up every year to climb over what it can find.
I don't eat starches now -- but I rather liked cassava when I did. It is so very easy to grow and harvest. Also makes a great hedge anywhere you insert the 'sticks'. Cassava is a better veg than the arrowroots.
Taro is very popular around here because of Pacifika folk. Supplies from Fiji -- and the Africa shop sells it in crate fulls. I find it not as easy to grow as purple yams. Requires more water.
Us Irish and the humble spud have nothing on Taro eaters.
While I've passed on the root veg and tuber starches I do love and eat Jerusalem artichokes. Nutritionally they are the bee's knees.
Christa I think when you cook them for 30mins the tanin % drops a fair bit. I picked a huge one last year that was 15kg and we ate the whole thing and some smaller ones.
This one took ages to dig up.
I
Have you eaten them before, Doug. I noticed they are quite high in tannins. I too, can relate to eating everything on your plate.
That'd be great Doug!
Yeah Andrew, you might need to replant your one if its not very big as that one started from an arial tuber the size of a golf ball.
They need to start at a kilo or so to get to 8-12kg.
I can bring some to the july garden visit so you can try it.
Is that the one I have growing in the bucket mate?
Hey Roger these are Dioscorea alata,or ube in the philipines. They taste similiar to spuds with a little more fibre. We bake them and mash them and add them to caseroles etc. I can cut a chunk off and they seal up so they last until they resprout in spring. Need to plant a kilo or so for them to grow this large. The one in your photo is the same species just in the white variety not sure if they tste the same. I am not a great person to judge taste as I like anything, a product of getting clipped around the ears if I said anything bad about the food I was given as a kid.
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