I grew two kinds of yacón this year. The first you see on the right is an unnamed variety with brown roots, which seems to be the most common kind at the moment. The other variety, on the left, is called yacón morado and has red roots. You can see yacón morado also has reddish leaves.
The unnamed variety is significantly more productive, yielding around twice what the yacón morado does, or about 10Kg per plant.
Yacón morado has an abundance of small flowers throughout most of the summer. While the unnamed variety can bloom from time to time, it usually only does so as a result of some kind of stress.
The flowers also attracted large numbers of bees, but for whatever reason every time I was ready with the camera all the bees went away.
Here are the harvested roots. Either something changed in the way it grew, or perhaps I was a little rushed during harvest, but it seems like the tubers broke off more readily this year during harvest. Anyway, the one sure thing about yacón is the harvest is big, so even with a few pieces broken off there’s still lots left. I’m not sure if the broken off pieces will rot before I have a chance to eat them or not.
I also haven’t had a chance to taste these two varieties side by side, so I’m not sure if the flavors are different.
I’m just making some lactofermented pickles from yacon – I’ll let you know how they go. Perfect combination of prebiotic and probiotic – guaranteed immortality. The morado seems to have yellower flesh and a slightly different taste and texture. I think it was less sweet. I haven’t been able to harvest my plants yet, so am not expecting them to have survived, but who knows?
I love the soft fuzzy look of yacon and of course, the harvest is pretty impressive looking too. Looking forward to your taste test.
Hi Ottawa Gardener
Read all about it here:
http://radix4roots.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-snack-on-yacon.html
It’s really quite nice- I might try incorporating it into sauerkraut at a future date. next step – yacon syrup.
My husband saw yacon in a gardening magazine and would like to know a source in Canada for seeds or seedlings. We live in Nova Scotia
Hi Bonnie,
I’m afraid I have no idea. Yacón is not as widely grown in NA as it is now in Europe, and it’s just not as easily available there.
You might try asking Telsing on The Veggie Patch Reimagined blog. I don’t think she herself is growing it, but I remember she looked into it a while ago and probably has some more up to date information for Canada than I do.
Bonnie. I do know of someone who may be a Canadian soure in the near future. Contact me.