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Post by davida on Dec 28, 2011 18:15:03 GMT -5
Can't wait for his 2012 selection. I do not believe that AMK is making a public offering of Yacon. If you contact him and tell him that you are a member of HG, he will sell you some Yacon crowns. Contact info is: Alan M. Kapuler Ph.D. Peace Seeds Public Domain Plant Breeding 2385 SE Thompson StD CorvallisCOR 97333-1919 alkapuler@gmail.com |
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Post by davida on Jan 2, 2012 10:54:24 GMT -5
Is anyone growing Yacon? In my research for new crops, Yacon seemed the most promising but could not find a US source. During this search, I found Alan Bishop's interview with Dr. Alan Kapuler and joined HG. Dr. Kapuler summed up my research concisely in his email:
"We use it as a sweetener, experimentally as a carbon source for growing microbes for enhancing fertility (bokashi), and to increase the fertility of the soil. When fresh harvested, it is bland, almost no sweetness and hence rich in inulins which have short chain lengths ie glucosyl-fructose plus 1,2,3,4 additional fructoses. After curing in warmth and sunshine the inulins break down to fructose and sucrose. In our local coop, the yacon has become a popular vegetable. As a farm crop, the yield is 2-5x that of potatoes."
Yacon seems especially valuable to the members with CSA's or selling to farmer's markets. Since Yacon is grown from the crowns and not the tubulars, your competion would have a rough time finding the crowns. And Yacon products on the internest are expensive.
Since AMK has agreed to furnish crowns to HG members, we now have a source. Is anyone else excited about Yacon?
David
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Post by orflo on Jan 2, 2012 11:40:37 GMT -5
I have six yacon varieties (I'm in Europe..) and they're all just great, they're my favourite winter snack, meal, chips and so on...Some varieties sweeten up quicker than others, some become sweeter overall but they all are truly wonderous. So I can only advise you to go for it, they will grow better in areas with wet summers, in dry summer climates harvest will be somewhat lower, I can get over 30 pounds of tubers for each plant, drier circumstances will reduce this to 15-20 pounds. Stems can be eaten as well, and leaves can be brewn into tea. There should be an old thread on yacon here somewhere, I'll search for it later on...
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Post by iva on Jan 2, 2012 14:22:43 GMT -5
Orflo, hello again! You sent me a few yacon crown bits a couple of years ago and I have to tell you, I'm in love with this plant. I now have six huge crowns in winter storage, hoping they will make it Ok till Spring. It's the overwintering part that's the hardest to do. Growing it is not a problem. Huge harvests, only good in dry summers like this one...
I did not however know that the stems can be eaten as well. Could you please tell me a bit more about this? Thanks, Iva
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Post by davida on Jan 3, 2012 12:10:54 GMT -5
I have six yacon varieties (I'm in Europe..) and they're all just great, they're my favourite winter snack, meal, chips and so on...Some varieties sweeten up quicker than others, some become sweeter overall but they all are truly wonderous. So I can only advise you to go for it, they will grow better in areas with wet summers, in dry summer climates harvest will be somewhat lower, I can get over 30 pounds of tubers for each plant, drier circumstances will reduce this to 15-20 pounds. Stems can be eaten as well, and leaves can be brewn into tea. There should be an old thread on yacon here somewhere, I'll search for it later on... Orflo, Thank you for information. Everything you said confirms my research. I just cannot understand why more members are not excited about Yacon. Is it very popular in European gardens? David |
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Post by castanea on Jan 3, 2012 12:30:18 GMT -5
Yacon tubers contain inulin, which can cause digestive or other health problems for some people.
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Post by davida on Jan 3, 2012 12:58:23 GMT -5
Yacon tubers contain inulin, which can cause digestive or other health problems for some people. Your concern was my question to Dr. Kapuler. His reply was: "harvested, it is bland, almost no sweetness and hence rich in inulins which have short chain lengths ie glucosyl-fructose plus 1,2,3,4 additional fructoses. After curing in warmth and sunshine the inulins break down to fructose and sucrose." It is my understanding that digestive problems increase after harvesting with Jerusalem artichokes but digestive problems decrease after harvest with yacon. Orflo, is this correct in your experience? Does the yacon cause digestive problems after being "cured" in the sunshine? David |
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Post by davida on Jan 3, 2012 13:05:55 GMT -5
Yacon tubers contain inulin, which can cause digestive or other health problems for some people. Castanea, Have you grown and/or eaten yacon? Your concern was my biggest worry. Dr. Kapuler said they grow hundreds of pounds of it every year and that it is very popular in their coop. Therefore, I concluded that "curing" in the heat and sun was the key similar to the way we cure sweet potatoes. David |
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Post by khoomeizhi on Jan 3, 2012 17:46:54 GMT -5
i'm excited about yacon. i've grown a white variety (which are said to be the least sweet, i think i've read? plenty sweet for me) for three years, and grow more every year. decent harvests of something that stores well and i can treat like a fruit in the winter? count me in. grew 20 plants this past year, i don't even know how many hundreds of pounds we had.
after curing, i haven't noticed significant issues with...the issue. i also grow several varieties of Helianthus tuberosus, and they tend to give me wind like nobody's business but the weatherman. yacon is definitely a different beast in my guts.
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Post by davida on Jan 3, 2012 18:20:21 GMT -5
i'm excited about yacon. i've grown a white variety (which are said to be the least sweet, i think i've read? plenty sweet for me) for three years, and grow more every year. decent harvests of something that stores well and i can treat like a fruit in the winter? count me in. grew 20 plants this past year, i don't even know how many hundreds of pounds we had. after curing, i haven't noticed significant issues with...the issue. i also grow several varieties of Helianthus tuberosus, and they tend to give me wind like nobody's business but the weatherman. yacon is definitely a different beast in my guts. Khoomeizha, Thanks for the information and welcome to HG. There are some very knowledgeable people that are willing to share their wisdom. I read somewhere that they call sunchokes, sunjokes in Britain. Sounds like you would agree. You raising hundreds of pounds of yacon from 20 plants is exciting. Would you be kind enough to share your growing methods? Do you start indoors? Do you worry about the ph and the fertility of the soil? Do you have to cover in the fall to get an entire harvest? Have you had a harvest every year? Any pests? etc....... Your weather is not that much different than ours in the Tulsa, OK vicinity. David |
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Post by khoomeizhi on Jan 4, 2012 8:21:54 GMT -5
i appreciate the welcome.
in answer(s):
i'm still a big fan of sunchoke/sunroot, i just sell most of it, or ferment it - when fermented (grated, kraut-style) i don't have any problems with it. a little bacterial pre-digestion.
re yacon:
i do start indoors. i keep the rhizome in buckets of soil in the basement, and they grow slowly all winter. early spring i pot up, but keep the pots inside (at least on cold nights). i haven't worried about pH at all. for fertility and moisture retention, this past year i mulched with alternating layers of chopped fresh comfrey (waiting a few days after each layer to wither down) and leafmold. did tiny bits of extra watering during july...and actually moved away in september. most of the crop was dug about a week and a half ago, in a little break between frozen ground times. mulch was sufficient to protect against in-ground parts freezing, but i let the tops freeze-kill (must have been mid-october). i doubt the tubers grew any after the top died, but i didn't have the storage prepared. they do keep well in the ground if they don't freeze.
the only pests i've had were fat white aphids being farmed by acanthomyops ants - underground. acanthomyops is a purely subterranean ant (you may have smelled them digging - they smell of citronella[used to study ants is why the little nat.history lesson])...and you could see those plants lagging a bit (3 of them, all in one bed - i dug around a bit to investigate), and harvest was definitely smaller for those plants, but still maybe 10-15lbs each. never had any other problem with them. i expect to still be eating this round in march at least, after having sold a fair amount, and doing some extra kitchen experimentation (hard yacon-cider, anyone?) trying to find a way to grow even more next year.
i def. have rhizome of this white variety available for trades. pm if interested.
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Post by davida on Jan 4, 2012 11:02:47 GMT -5
Khoomeizhi
Thanks for all the great information. Loooking forward to sharing yacon results in 2012 and then findings alot of great recipes to enjoy the harvest.
David
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Post by orflo on Jan 4, 2012 12:04:31 GMT -5
I never had any digestive problems, nor do I know anybody who had this, even in an early unsweetened stage they are perfectly fine, but the added sweetness makes it worth waiting a few weeks or even months. When the skin becomes wrinkled, the roots have sweetened up a lot and are very tasty. You can leave the plants during wintertime in a dark room, and wait until they slowly sweeten up, this could take up to two or three months. Or you can place the tubers in the sun (frost-free!), and depending on how much sun you get, they sweeten up in weeks.
No , they are certainly not common in European gardens, unknown vegetables are hard to introduce, and it's a very slow process. Besides that yacon is hard to find in nurseries and seed catalogues, so finding some plants isn't really easy for most people...
Iva, you can eat the stems, they can be prepared like cellery, but if you do cut the stems (the young ones are the best) your root harvest will be reduced. I prefer the roots, so I don't eat the stems any more...
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Post by davida on Jan 4, 2012 13:14:20 GMT -5
No , they are certainly not common in European gardens, unknown vegetables are hard to introduce, and it's a very slow process. Besides that yacon is hard to find in nurseries and seed catalogues, so finding some plants isn't really easy for most people... Thanks for the great information. Yacon seems to be an unknown vegetables that should be in more gardens. It will be in my garden in 2012 and hopefully forever. David |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2012 22:29:25 GMT -5
i'm still a big fan of sunchoke/sunroot, i just sell most of it, or ferment it - when fermented (grated, kraut-style) i don't have any problems with it. a little bacterial pre-digestion. When I make kimchi from cabbage, I find that a little added sugar speeds things up. I didn't need to add vinegar. If I understand correctly, the inulin in sunroots breaks down into ordinary sugar. Do you find that you need to add anything, to help the sunroots go "sour?" acanthomyops is a purely subterranean ant (you may have smelled them digging - they smell of citronella Ants with this smell covered my hands, when I reached into a bag of peat moss, on a shady potting bench, next to a compost heap. Surprised, I left my pot on a sunny picnic table. I returned to find it surrounded by a circle of dead ants, which apparently died in a matter of seconds, when exposed to the sun. I have six yacon varieties Your purple and striped yacon are sprouting many leaves in my humidity dome! Do you have other colors, available, right now? Stems can be eaten as well, and leaves can be brewn into tea. I understood they were good for diabetics. |
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