My True Yams (Dioscorea alata)

Just for now some images of my Yams, and I don't mean Sweet Potatoes or Oca or Taro but big, gnarly Dioscorea Yams with their beautiful foliage and colourful or enormous tubers dug during winter. I'll write more fully about them soon because I think they have great potential down here in Melbourne (at latitude 38 degrees south) as an ornamental plant and as a bonus source of carbs when the weather goes grim...

Images of Oca or New Zealand Yams

So I finally learned some degree of patience and stopped "bandicooting" the Oca. As a result I can finally show images of fully grown Oca. They really are delicious and as they harvested during the late autumn and early winter gloom of May-June, ferreting out these pinky-purple grubs on a chilly afternoon was a seasonal highlight. I am on a mission now to increase my own production of Oca but to convert all of Melbourne to these tuberous wonders!

Cooking with Jerusalem Artichokes

The trouble with some crops is that they are too abundant and you face the issue of what to do with a gigantic harvest. The problem is compounded when you admit to yourself that you not quite sure where they fit it into your everyday meals (read: I don't really like the taste or smell etc). I have always felt this way about Jerusalem Artichokes. They are easy to grow, have attractive small sunflowers in autumn and produce unbelievable quantities of gnarly cream-coloured edible rhizomes. No matter how thorough your harvest of these rhizomes even the tiniest fragment left in the soil will re-sprout next spring making Jerusalem Artichokes an indestructible perennial vegetable and weedy to boot.

A gnarly pot-grown Jerusalem Artichoke

This year I grew Jerusalem Artichokes in two large pots. I pretty much neglected them and on hot days they wilted and looked awful. In fact by the end of summer the plants were not especially robust looking and I didn't expect much of a harvest. Yesterday I tipped them out of their pots and what emerged was a decent crop after all - around 30 medium sized rhizomes. Now although I don't mind baked artichoke roots and I have used them sliced raw in salads they generally don't inspire me. (And this lack of inspiration isn't because of the "gas" they cause, you know "Fartichokes"...).

Only once have I really enjoyed JAs and this was when a friend cooked up a French soup recipe using blended JAs with lots of cream. It was delicious and there was a distinctive artichoke flavour that made them seem like a worthwhile crop to have on hand. So yesterday I searched for JA recipe on the internet and found a recipe at http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2009/10/jerusalem_artichoke_soup_with_bacon.php...this is apparently a well-know cooking blog and had a great discussion on the use of JAs in French cooking, especially for survival cooking during the First World War.  I used Canna tubers and one potato along with the artichokes but otherwise I followed the recipe quite closely. The resulting soup was nourishing and tasty. For this recipe alone I will grow Jerusalem Artichokes with a little more effort next year.

Success with Oca/New Zealand Yam in Melbourne?

New Zealand Yam (Oxalis tuberosa) is neither a yam nor from New Zealand; in fact it's from the Andes and a member of the Oxalis family. It's called Oca in South America (one of several local names). The 'yam' part of the plant is a small pink, yellow or white roundish or finger-like stem tuber which can be eaten raw, steamed or baked. They are definitely popular in New Zealand because although I have never been across the Tasman I keep meeting New Zealanders who are intensely nostalgic about missing a "feed of yams" now that they live in Australia. I became interested in Oca when it was recommended in various sources as a delicious, perennial vegetable that is second only to potatoes for cropping in the Andes. Now "perennial" made me think "relatively easy to grow" but this is not necessarily the case. Producing plenty of tubers requires some basic cultivation knowledge and tricks; Oca is not set and forget as is the case for many annual and perennial vegetables alike.

Before I explain what you need to know to grow plenty of Oca tubers, I will confirm that this is an attractive plant with green clover leaves growing off pinky-red stems. In early spring and then into autumn in Melbourne's temperate climate it looks lush and has quite a compact habit. It's when summer comes that things get tricky. Oca doesn't like hot days and on really hot days (more than say 32 degrees celsius) it wilts badly. In summer it tends to sprawl and in hot humid weather often rots at the base of the stems or just below the soil level. It is one of the worst performing plants in poorly drained soil that I have ever experimented with. When they say it likes well drained soil they really mean it.

Here's the problem. Oca's summer flopping wouldn't be so bad if it was producing tubers during this time but it doesn't. Like a lot of tropical plants Oca is a short day plant, meaning that it won't start producing tubers until the amount of day light is around 12 hours (or less) which for Melbourne, after summer, occurs at the autumn equinox on or around March 21. Having grown Oca for three years now it is extraordinary how tuber formation begins at this time like clockwork. The stems begin to produce stolons or subsidiary stems and then swell into tubers. Now as autumn nights get colder and longer this tuber production will continue until late May and even into June as long as you are in a frost free area.

So Oca growing means growing "useless" plants for around six months until late autumn when you have to start fussing over them to some degree. But here's the good news - Oca is extremely easy to grow from cuttings. So this year I took cuttings throughout spring and summer from plants in the ground that were waxing and waning in health depending on the weather. I sold quite a few at Sophia's Food Garden Open Day and the rest I put into makeshift raised beds before March 21. This was because there is no doubt that "hilling up" Oca plants (as you do for potatoes) really works. Unlike potatoes (which seem to produce plenty of tubers even if you don't hill them up) Oca seems to need its stems to be covered to help stimulate tuber production because they stay on or near the surface of the soil.

Now here's a confession, my first two years of growing Oca were disappointing precisely because I didn't keep piling up the free-draining soil or compost up and around the Oca stems as they grew. And last year my efforts were thwarted by Sophia's chooks which went mad for the sweet/sour Oxalis foliage and literally pecked them to death. Anyway, I'm writing this on April 28 and the tubers are forming nicely and very close to the surface of my various Oca stations. I have two lots in the ground around which I have pushed up lots of compost. I also have two lots of plants in a styrofoam raised beds; I just keep pouring more soil and compost over the top of them to cover the stems, effectively super-mulching them.

Have a look at the pictures, I hope it's relatively self-explanatory. I'll blog again about how they're going in about a month when I expect they will be ready to harvest or at least "bandicoot". By the way, Tansy the chef who runs the cafe at Burnley (whose partner John is an Oca-loving Kiwi) let me know that the potato man (Michael J Mow Gourmet Potatoes) at the Prahran market sells Australian grown Oca every year.  This should be very soon I hope (see http://theindolentcook.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/oka-yams-love-at-first-bite.html. for an account of someone getting into Oca for the first time).

Sophia's succulents for sale

Apart from the edible plants that make up most of the back yard there are also many succulents growing in the front garden. These plants have been carefully selected and arranged by Sophia who has now propagated quite a few for sale. In her own words:


"In the front garden and nature strip there is a large array of succulents on display, this garden is now two years old and boosts colour diversity and foliage contrast. Over the weekend of the open garden there will be a sustainable and fun selection of succulents for sale presented by a new concept called 'Little Pots and Plants'. The concept is to support local charity op shops through the purchase of different items such as bags, shoes and kitchenwares (to name a few) and upcycle these into useable, fun and adorable outdoor pots for succulents". 

These succulents look great and I am amazed how well they do in partial shade growing out of shoes or old jugs - you'll see them as you walk down the side of the house upon entering the garden. 

Sophia's Garden open again February 18 and 19

It's nearly been a year since Sophia's garden was open in Armadale for the Australian Open Garden Scheme (now called Open Gardens Australia). Next month it's open again on February 18 and 19 from 10.00am to 4.00pm both days. The entry fee is still $6.00. Proceeds from the gate will go to Open Gardens Australia, SANE and the Prahran Mission.

The photo shows the garden last month in December - it's been growing like crazy since and should still be looking lush in five weeks time. The garden lay-out has changed somewhat from last year mostly for crop rotation reasons. All the perennial species continue to thrive including the beautiful Scared Lotus (pictured). Many of these edible plants will be for sale in the small nursery area at the back of the garden while Sophia and Cassie will have succulents for sale along the cool, protected walk down the side of the house. Please come and visit the garden in February!