Just wanted to share our harvest of yacon from this season. We grew it a couple years ago successfully, but had lost our rhizomes to mold over the winter. This year I’m hoping to do a better job of storing the rhizomes in dryer, cooler conditions. We sources rhizomes from Peace Seedlings, they have 3 varieties that we grew.
Yacon is a very interesting and unique crop. William Whitson at cultivariable.com has all of the information one might want about yacon, so I’ll just link to his website. But the yields are enormous, with very little labor. We often get 20-30 lbs of tubers per plant! And I do quite enjoy the flavor, especially after the tubers have cured for a few weeks. To me, the flavor and texture feels like a mix of jicama and Asian pear. Sweet, light, juicy and refreshing, and very crispy/crunchy in texture.
The plants take all of the warm season to reach maturity; we usually only start getting flowers around October. We harvested the tubers in these photos a bit early, in order to get them out to our CSA members before the main season is over. We left some plants in the ground to see what difference another few weeks will make to the harvest.
There seem to be some creative recipes for yacon online, but most are not very traditional, likely because yacon is a pre-Incan crop from the Andes. We simply peel them and slice them up for a refreshing snack.
full size plants in October
