Yacon - Apple of the earth: Complete Growing and Harvesting Guide with Recipe
These are our young beautiful Yacon plants
that are ready for sale, ready for planting.
These were grown from offsets and were planted
about 6 weeks ago and as you can see they've
really boomed in growth and these are ready to plant.
During the growing season they will grow to
about that height and they're ready for cropping
once they go deciduous in the Winter is when
you harvest them but these are actually related
to sunflowers so you will find during the
growing Season that you will also get these
beautiful little yellow like daisy flowers on
them which makes them quite attractive
in the garden as well
you will know that your Yacon plants
are ready to harvest because
all the tops die back and you will be left
with stalks at that stage you just dig the
whole clump up to do that just use a garden
fork and you will be harvesting
the big mature tubers.
If you rince off the rootball at this stage
you will be able to see the offsets which
are the bits you are going to replant.
So keep all the pink offsets that are showing
signs of new growth and harvest all your mature tubers.
Your fresh Yacons can be pealed just like
you would a potato or an apple and sliced
they're delicious eaten fresh just with a
squeeze of juice they would make a lovely
fresh snack like that or you can actually
just add them to salads and stir fries and
they add a beautiful crisp texture and they're
not super sweet so they're really useful in
both savory and sweet dishes in the kitchen.
Freshly harvested Yacon tubers can be
squeezed for their juice.
It tastes like a cross between celery juice
and watermelon juice and it's just beautiful
so it's a great way to use your tubers.
The principal carbohydrate in Yacon is Inulin
this is a mainly fructose polymer which offers
sweetness without raising blood sugar levels.
Before planting your Yacons you need to first
prepare your garden bed so dig it over deeply,
water it down then put on a nice thick
healthy layer of organic mulch.
We're planting young potted Yacons into this
freshly prepared garden bed. Just tip them
out of their pots and tickle out their roots
and once they're planted into the soft soil
give them a good drink.
Watering them in will settle the soil around
them and get them off to a great start.
Yacon - Apple of the earth Purchase the Yacon Tree http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/Perennialveg/yacon.htm You can peel & slice and eat them fresh. Great in stir fries as they add a crips texture. They can also be squeezed for their juice, A cross between watermelon juice and celery juice.