Yacon

Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) is a perennial tuber from south America which grows well in Ireland and is very easy to propagate. Above the large edible tubers are found small knobby propagative tubers. You will receive 3 of these in a small bag of compost. Pot them up in a frost free place. I sow them in 2 litre pots in the polytunnel and throw some crop cover net over them if the temperature drops. They can be planted out when risk of frost has passed and need about a square meter of space in good light. Otherwise very unfussy.

Once they get going they will put out large leaves and can reach a height of 2m. They can flower in Autumn and are ready to harvest when the first frost kills off the leafy growth. You should get a few kg of edible tubers from each plant and plenty of propagative tubers for the following year.

The tubers look like sweet potatoes but that’s where the similarity ends. Their flesh is crisp and juicy, more like the texture of a crisp apple. They are nice to eat raw and feel more like eating a bland but refreshing fruit rather than a tuber. You will find fanciful claims that they taste a bit like pears/apples/celery/watermelon/etc. They don’t. I haven’t tried cooking them yet but my friend from Mexico says that they use them in stews over there.

Yacon is also used to make a sugar syrup and has gotten a lot of interest in this regard as the carbohydrates are in the form of fructooligosaccharides, which as well being a impossible to pronounce, are also impossible to digest so provide a food source for probiotic bacteria in the gut.