ROOTING for YACONS
Want to add another crop to your repertoire? How about this sweet-tasting root vegetable that Sally Cunningham has been growing on her allotment?
Sally Cunningham
The leaves of yacons are soft-toy furry and taste a bit like spinach
Picture: Welsh National Botanic Gardens
South America has an unforgiving climate, and consequently more than its fair share of root vegetables – potatoes, oca, mashua, and the newly popular dahlia relative, yacon, Smallanthus sonchifolius, which has possibly the most attractive foliage of all.The coarsely toothed leaves are broad and silver, soft-toy furry with subtle bristles below, especially round the veins: a teddy bear with attitude.