Oca

[Richard]

I just love coincidences!  Last Saturday Dave Richards gave a really interesting talk about permaculture at Minstead Study Centre.  He illustrated his points with a brilliant range of slides and one of them showed some strange looking tubers that looked a little like Jerusalem Artichokes.  When the audience was asked if anyone knew what they were someone called out Oca.....  No I hadn't heard of them either.....  When I got home afterwards I checked my emails and there was one entitled 'Oca'!

It was from Food Challenge member Anni Kelsey asking me if I wanted a few Oca tubers to try....

I gratefully accepted the offer and they arrived yesterday in the post.....see below

Anni kindly supplied me with a quick guide to their cultivation and I have found lots of info about these 'lost tubers of the Incas' on line....will keep everyone posted about how I get on but meanwhile does anyone have any experience with these veggies that they'd like to share?

[Richard Loader]

I have grown Oca, very pretty foliage and nice flowers too. The crop was pathetic is quantity and I wasn't over impressed by the flavour. It needs good soil and a garden where the first Autumn frosts are late, say end of November. I can see why Potatoes caught on way back when and Oca didn't. If you want a fun vegetable to grow then Oca is well worth a try but if you grow veg to live on then Potatoes are much more rewarding for the effort, I'd suggest growing a super-tasty variety like 'Mimi' if you want to be different and don't mind a lower yield. RichardB...have you grown Mimi?....if not I'll send you some.

I also tried Ulloco, another lost Inca tuber and IMHO well worth losing.

I confess I'm a sceptic with a lot of these 'new' veg and fruits, they may be fun but without a lot of development they offer little in terms of sustainability unless you have a very favourable site or global warming brings better Summers. Few of these 'new' crops are actually new, they've all been tried on and off over the centuries and been found wanting....but they make a good subject to write a book about. I think folks who are new to edible gardening need success; tried and tested crops are the way to go to begin with.

I wish I could grow Mulberrys, they are delicious and never available from shops, Quince, easy and well worth growing, My Almond, to my amazement and pleasure cropped well in it's first year.

I'll continue to try new varieties of fruit and veg, there will be something amongst them worth growing eventually.....but the 'hit rate' is very low.

[Stephen Chapman]

Keep us posted - looks interesting. I recently bought "A taste of the Unexpected" (http://shop.otterfarm.co.uk/collections/books/products/a-taste-of-t...). This has some similar ideas about more interesting vegetables - In fact I have Mulberry, Quince and Almond trees waiting to be planted as a result of reading it!

Also you'll remember we discussed mobile pizza vans at the Minstead event. If you're interested, this is podcoast I was referring too: http://podcaster.fm/podcasts/viewEpisode.aspx?podcastitemid=1051544...

Steve