Trying a few root crops

[Uli]

Before yesterday I dug up one row of sweet potatoes, a little late I must admit. I am very impressed with the number of delicious tubers. Here in Portugal they sell unrooted cuttings in May. These are planted in well prepared soil and watered in. Once established they get a deep watering every ten days or so. I felt it was little water but my neighbor instructed me like this. The summer was hot and dry and sometimes the plants looked somewhat unhappy but they always recovered quickly after getting water. 
The result is amazing considering the little effort I put into growing them. It is the much appreciated local variety Lyra, it is the first time I have grown sweet potatoes. The basket was full after all was dug up.

[Arnold]

Uli

Looks like a good harvest.   How do you prepare them?

[Uli]

It is a learning process..... for two meals we have peeled them, cut into roughly one inch pieces and boiled in water with some salt. This is the same way as we would prepare ordinary potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) except that sweet potatoes only need half of the cooking time. The second lot was made into a purée with nutmeg and a little butter, very good.
Yesterday a Portuguese friend told us that they are best prepared in the oven, whole, not peeled, sprinkled with salt, pepper and olive oil. 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade. Eaten peeled. We will try.

[Arnold]

Uli

I usually bake them as you described.

We have a couple of varieties here, thanks to the large Asian population.  They are whiter than a traditional sweet potato and much sweeter.  My wife mashes them and adds butter which must make them even better.

[Martin Bohnet]

Arnold, I prefer the orange ones over the white ones, but also came across purple-blue varieties - like with blue potatos the visual effect was more impressive than the taste so for me I'd say orange > purple > white.

Uli, try adding lime juice ( Citrus × latifolia ) to the purée instead of the nutmeg, gives it a totally different "spin" and frees it from the "potato replacement" feeling.

[Martin Bohnet]

OK, Tropaeolum tuberosum

Flower Colors:	orange, yellow, red
Flower Season:	late summer
Special:	climber, edible flowers, edible storage organ

had a far better year this time around - the summer wasn't as hot in peak, so it did not go as dormant, and was massively invigorated in September. it flowered mid November, and I harvested it now after first true frost, and this time the crop exploded - enough to now try it fried. It's actually quite different than I expected, it loses all of the "edge" of the raw taste. It's OK, but nothing special. I'll stay raw.

The pink Oxalis tuberosa

just kept the same level - didn't really profit from the different summer. I also tried an orange variety which performed even worse - and surprised me by getting the corms above ground. Not sure if I should continue those, even though I like the taste. raw, again. But I started to eat leaves this year. Nice, too.

Oh, and Yacon didn't make it through winter in the first place - just shriveled up under normal Dahlia basement storage conditions.

I don't think I've mentioned Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachia) here before, but what I've learned about them this year is: they need LIGHT. Those in the dappled shade which was so fine for Tropaeolum barely kept their size from last year, but the one in sun snaked around the pot's floor and got HUGE. The huge one is the variegated clone, so I'll surely not cook it. But I think I know what to do next year.

[Robert_Parks]

The harvest is very late this year. Only the potatoes have mostly gone down, and there are still a few clones still green (all from seed). Only a few oca (Oxalis tuberosa) have gone down...got a few pounds from a red clone, but unharvested ones have pushed the soil over the edge of the pots, so plenty down there. Some of the oddities (new to me this year) are still up and green, and flowering heavily if inconspicuously. Mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum) is still green and flowering, but with bulging pots...the rats left them entirely alone this year. Ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus), up and green and firing off droppers, one clone only is going yellow. Wasabi (an arguable geophyte) is happy as a clam, I can harvest at will.

Yacon also went bad in storage last winter, and the storage tubers are not to my liking (watery, sweet, fibrous), so I didn't try to save it.

I think I'll be able to lift a few planters next week, but the harvest is probably going to extend into the new year.

[Ron]

I have heard that there is very little true wasabi in sushi bars in the US.  It is supposed to be horseradish dyed green.  Having tried both (I assume), what would you say?

How do you grow it?  A mini-documentary on public TV showed it being grown in a stream on a farm in Japan, while Wikipedia suggests it is riparian.

[janemcgary]

For a long time, Japanese experts claimed that wasabi could not be grown anywhere else. Recently, however, it has begun to be grown in Oregon. I don't know if it's in actual streamflow, which would be possible near the Pacific coast where the grower is, or whether it's in a hoop house with circulating pumps, but yes, it's aquatic. It has not, to my knowledge, been used here as in Japan, see photo of ice cream shop.

[fierycloud]

There are some geophyte grown as leafy or inflorescence vegetables in Taiwan. But they may not be the traditional edible species, parts, and culinary use in their origin countries. (They might be Novel food in most countries even their evolution origin.)
(In traditional Chinese.)
 
 
Fresh inflorescence of Agave amica, formerly Polianthes tuberosa (Picture and Text)
https://www.taitung.gov.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=13370&s=52947
 
Hemerocallis fresh shoots or sprouts whether being cultivated alike endive. (Picture and Text)
https://www.tcdares.gov.tw/ws.php?id=1761

[CG100]

For a long time, Japanese experts claimed that wasabi could not be grown anywhere else. Recently, however, it has begun to be grown in Oregon. I don't know if it's in actual streamflow, which would be possible near the Pacific coast where the grower is, or whether it's in a hoop house with circulating pumps, but yes, it's aquatic. It has not, to my knowledge, been used here as in Japan, see photo of ice cream shop.

For sure the rumours are that true wasabi is difficult to grow, not so much linked specifically to Japan, but the growing conditions required to get a good crop of good wasabi. Given the price, I suspect that there must be at least some element of truth in that as the price would drive people to try.
The only video that I have watched of a Japanese wasabi "farm" has shown shaded fast-running streams. I seem to recall water temperature being mentioned as important too.

I have heard that there is very little true wasabi in sushi bars in the US.  It is supposed to be horseradish dyed green.

Maybe in the US too? But horseradish is native to the UK - a roadside weed. Very occasionally you will see people digging the roots, but it is farmed on a very small scale, for manufacturing horseradish sauce - probably the more traditional, perhaps more popular, accompaniment to roast beef in the UK.
To get the right heat v. flavour the commercial producers use a particular ratio of main root (around 10-20mm diameter) and finer feeder roots that grow off the main root.

Cold roast beef and horseradish sauce sandwiches...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[CG100]

Just found this - new(ish), and not the one that I have watched before, which was filmed in Japan

A mention in the video - that it is a brassica - reminded me of something we did as kids....... After any brassica had been cut in the garden, we would get the knife and cut the white pith from the inside of the stem, and eat that raw. It can be quite hot but otherwise it has a typical "raw cabbage" taste. You could get an awful lot from a sprout stem!!
It did/does have one unfortunate effect though - gas, and lots of it!!!

[Robert_Parks]

I have two varieties, one milder, one spicier, this is consistent in leaf, stem, and rhizome. The real thing has a distinct taste different from fake wasabi, but they are obviously relatives. Milder and more delicate, to the point that finely sliced rhizomes are a pleasant taste. The leaves are succulent and non-stringy enough in season to eat straight, and probably would be very fine if chopped or sliced in a salad...you get a few seconds of fresh green mild crucifer, and then you get some amount of zing!

They get moist well-drained conditions, shade, and high elevation tropical temperatures, usually high humidity. They grow slowly in the summer despite irrigation. One variety will wilt in moist soil if struck my direct sunlight, or if the temperatures are pleasant and the humidity is below San Francisco normal, the other takes more of these conditions but grows slower overall...in either case their soil is still moist. Misting and more watering perks them right up.

It is very proliferous, and any side bud will root and grow if broken off and planted.

I have not tried any fancier irrigation/culture beyond moving them to shadier and shadier corners of the back yard, and daily hand watering.

[petershaw]

I have tried growing this 2X. First was a gift from a grower. I placed it in my pea gravel based aquaponic bed. Too sunny for sure but it grew pretty well. I tried to divide it and killed all of the offsets. 

I picked up another one from another grower. Its growing really nicely in a wicking bed made from a 30gal blue barrel cut in half. Its in shade as well.

I have been reluctant to harvest or divide after my first attempt but maybe I try it again after it flowers this late winter early spring.
I will try some leaves, also looks like my spouse can ferment some petioles.

cheers!