Kem Ormond’s vegetable garden: How to grow yacon, a thirst-quenching gem

Kem picked up this yacon tuber from the Whanganui market. Photo / Phil Thomsen

Kem Ormond is a features writer for The Country. She’s also a keen gardener. This week, she discovers yacon.

OPINION

It resembles a kūmara, and in the garden, it grows like a dahlia tuber.

It is also known as the “Peruvian Ground Apple”, with a botanical name as long as your arm (Smallanthus sonchifolius).

It grows with slightly tropical-looking leaves, followed by small sunflower-looking flowers.

It tastes like a cross between an apple and a pear.

Juicy, sweet, and crunchy with the texture of a watermelon.

I like it sliced and raw, and it certainly is the most thirst-quenching vegetable I have ever experienced.

I find it pleasant on the palate, with a pear-like texture, but not huge on flavour.

It is the juiciness that attracts me to yacon.

On a hot summer’s day, just peel a tuber and eat; it is so mouth-watering and refreshing.

I have been reading up about the health benefits related to this plant, and I managed to buy some at our local river market.

I will be planting a small patch of it this year so I can indulge myself.

It can be peeled and eaten as a snack, grated and added to fritters, or used in a salad or coleslaw.

If short of some watermelon, you can cube it and add it to your fruit salad.

You need to roll it in some lemon juice, especially if adding to a salad, as, like pears, it does go brown rather quickly.

It grows to about 2 metres in height and will grow in most places.

Although it’s happier in a warmer climate, it can survive the winter, as long as it has frost protection over the top.

Full or part shade, average soil condition, but does prefer being planted in moist loam.

The top growth dies down in the winter, and like a lot of plants, a good frost does make the tubers sweeter.

You harvest the edible tubers in autumn, and then replant the rhizomes at the end of the plant, ready for the next season’s harvest.

After harvest, tubers left in the sun to harden taste much better than those eaten immediately.

When it comes to storage, just brush the tubers clean and store them the same way you would with kūmara.

Yacon is related to the Jerusalem artichoke, but they are slightly easier to control.

They will indeed grow from a small rhizome like an artichoke, but yacon doesn’t spread as vigorously, which is a plus.

Health benefits

High in fibre, they have a super-low calorie content, making them ideal as a quick snack.

Yacon is said to be a premium prebiotic, boosting beneficial gut microbes with no gassiness! So great for your gut health.

Known to curb your appetite by 50% if eaten fresh 20 minutes before your meal, it is also said to reduce cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as lowering blood pressure and boosting your immunity.

This is a great plant to divide and pass on to friends.

Hunt some down and give it a go, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.