Pushing the boundaries of the plot is a hazardous business, and I can confirm that the beautiful Inca tuber, mashua, tastes like Fairy Liquid. It is reportedly an acquired taste but I can't see it being given the chance to be acquired. Much more palatable though is oca, Oxalis tuberosa, another Andean aesthete. Like mashua, it swells only in the autumn but not as prodigiously, this picture showing my total yield from three plants. Still, its shamrock like leaves make for an attractive weed-suppressing border edging and so it will be getting a more extensive experiment next year. Rich in oxalic acid like rhubarb and sorrel, it has that same acidic sweetness which make it a bit of a delicacy. Unfortunately, the mice seem to agree.
Monday, 19 December 2011
Uber Tuber
Pushing the boundaries of the plot is a hazardous business, and I can confirm that the beautiful Inca tuber, mashua, tastes like Fairy Liquid. It is reportedly an acquired taste but I can't see it being given the chance to be acquired. Much more palatable though is oca, Oxalis tuberosa, another Andean aesthete. Like mashua, it swells only in the autumn but not as prodigiously, this picture showing my total yield from three plants. Still, its shamrock like leaves make for an attractive weed-suppressing border edging and so it will be getting a more extensive experiment next year. Rich in oxalic acid like rhubarb and sorrel, it has that same acidic sweetness which make it a bit of a delicacy. Unfortunately, the mice seem to agree.
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DSB I have been on tenterhooks awaiting your next post (I thought it may have been the Christmas special - but I am assuming your are still crafting this) but you havent let us down with Uber Tuber especially through references to fairy lquid(LOL!)and swollen root veg.
ReplyDeleteYour photgraphic arrangement of the aforementioned tubers has a pleasant symmetry and I thought the use of the ramadajarvis pen was a touch of class harking back to a bygone era.
Yours in anticipation etc.
PS having an argument with Mrs lotment at moment on a more conventional root veg - parsnips - i have left them in the ground to dig out on Christmas Eve and put into our medley of root vegetables (Course 3 of 5) however she things they will be woody and ruined. I guess we will find out in a week but what's the view from up North?
I think that pen must be from the Ramada Flensburg, visited during me and Yeoey's Denmark tour at GE expense. I guess I better devise a Christmas Special post!
ReplyDeleteIn one of those rare cases, I will probably side with Mr Lotment on parsnips although Mrs L has the root of a case. Woodiness in autumn and winter is more likely to be due to poor growing conditions, i.e. insufficient water cause early flower formation (bolting). Later in the winter, roots become woody once the flower shoot starts to form. [We are talking biennials of course. If you have any unused roots, leave them to flower - their acid yellow-green blooms were the the highlight of the winning garden at the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show, so you'll be very trendy!]. If it's any use in your argument, my snips are still in the ground. I harvested my first one last week, and it was tender to the core - although heavily cankered but that's something for another thread entirely.