Home-grown oca - aka New Zealand Yam #growyourownfood #carryforthtradition #food

This is the ochre that I put in in spring and I think from what I've investigated you're supposed to let the frost kill off the leaves at the top and when they die down the tubers can grow really much bigger. I had a look yesterday, look at this. So actually I've got some that I've grown so I might take a few out and just put them in some sand and store them. I might leave a couple in the ground so they can grow back here because they seem to like it here. They've not got pests and diseases, they come from the Andes I think. I bought three and then I've grown these so I put three plants in and this one's just got absolutely massive, you can see it. But it's nice, it looks nice, it's from, it looks like sorrel. There's actually some native, this is like our little native wood sorrel, we get little tiny white, it's got white yellow flowers from this one and their leaves taste lemony and a bit like apple peel as well. And you can eat, these are much bigger, look at these. But the leaves and the stems from this ochre also taste lemony, a bit like apple peel, you can eat that as well. I've just taken a couple up, I'm just going to give them a wash. Yeah so I'll put these in sand and then I can chip them and grow them. Funny, funny looking little things. These are some I've taken up now, I don't know whether to take them all up, look at these, they're so strange. Somebody's eaten that but I'll keep it anyway because it'll probably chip on the other areas, it's a bit like when you get a potato that's, you could break these bits off and chip them. I mean it might survive but it's worth trying. Look at that, they're really weird, they're not very pretty, well yeah they look like some kind of weird grub or cute I suppose, it depends how you look at it. That's just a few I've taken out, some little tiddly ones. I think when I got mine I got three about that size, maybe this size, no they were that size. So this is just one plant and I've not finished, I've just looked at one side of it so, and I didn't dig them. So this could be it, there could be loads more, I didn't actually look much further but it's funny how they're, look at that, that's hilarious. I don't know if that's normal, mutant okra, okra, not okra, okra, O-C-A, so these are mutant okra or maybe that's normal but I'm not sure. I've not seen them like that before on videos, I don't really know, maybe if I left them longer they'd divide into separate ones, I don't know, it's a learning curve. Anyway I'm gonna put some in some sand, store them and give some away so that I've got a friend growing some as well so we've got an endless supply. I'm gonna put them in some straw, I haven't got any sand I've just had a look but I've got some hay, so I'll get them in there just to keep them, I don't know really what else to do with them and then put them somewhere dark probably and I'll plant a few back in ready for next year. Well I'm not quite sure if they're supposed to be like that but that's massive and it's got loads coming out from the sides. I've got the feeling they're supposed to be more like this and then it's got these coming out the side so I don't know if I've got like mutant, mutant okra, look at them. So I'm gonna roast them, see what they taste like.