Topic: yacon tubers

[lottie lou]

How does everyone store their yacon tubers after they have been harvested.  Would it be best to store in damp compost until needed.  I put them in salad bin in fridge last year and they sort of went soft and floppy or rotted.

[goodlife]

I'm looking forward for answers too.
 I've just lifted mine up..at the moment they in GH under fleece and if the weather is not turning drastically colder I will let them sweeten up  there for another week or so. Although I've got quite a lot of good size tubers, I'm hoping to use them as 'fresh' veg rather than turn them into syrup.

[ed dibbles]

Dug up the first three plants today (of a total of eighteen ) and got about 15-20 pounds despite one of the plants being the smallest one that was frosted slightly when it was first planted out.

They are stored in a dry frost free lean to for now to dry out and to sweeten up before being processed into our first syrup of the year. Yum!

The online consensus seems to be that they will store well in a cool, airy, frost free place, with any broken surfaces sealing, for anything up to nine months.

But since this is my first full crop (after last year's abysmal showing) I'm still at the suck it and see stage.

They will definitely be a permanent allotment feature for the foreseeable future as they are just great.

[lottie lou]

Had your leaves frosted over Ed?  Mine are still nice and green but the first year 2010 I lost the lot as I couldn't lift them out of the ground and by the time I did, the tubers were full of keeled slugs.  Started again last year with fresh caudices and was happy with the harvest, although not a large one.  How do you press them to make syrup, use an apple press?

[ed dibbles]

The leaves have stayed green a nice long time with the pretty orange flowers attracting late bees and butterflies. They got a nip of frost last night, nothing too serious, but since it will take me a while to extract them I thought I'd make a start, cutting down the top growth as you would with a dahlia before wading in with fork and spade.

To process for syrup: peel, blitz in a food processor then press juice out in apple/wine press. Boil the grey juice until it takes on a warm brown colour.

Last year what little I made thickened too much as it cooled turning to a thick caramel/soft toffee consistency, but utterly delicious. This time I shall attempt a less thick syrup.

Of course the best thing is that the sweet yacon syrup has hardly any calories and does not affect ones glycemic index (i.e. good for diabetics). Which is why it is soooo expensive in health food shops (£15 for a small jar!!!)

[Ian Pearson]

Lottie lou, they probably rotted because the fridge was too moist. Almost dry sand or whatever will keep them in good condition, but they will sweeten more if left in light (but then they shrivel a bit, if this worries you - personally I'm not bothered). So perhaps sand for long term storage, and cool airy place for short/medium term. I find they stay usable even if stored carelessly in a warm room - though they do shrivel and loose some size after a few weeks.

[lottie lou]

Thanks for the advice.  Should I have enough produce to try to make yacon syrup, does any one have any ideas, in the absence of access to an apple press, what I could use to get the juice out?

[manicscousers]

Thank you, Ed. we got about 10 lbs from the plants you sent 
I'll have a go at the syrup to sweeten stuff for Ray

[lottie lou]

Just under 10lb of tubers from the one plant.  Question: what the heck am I going to do with it?

Manics do you have a fruit press or do you have another method of extracting the juice for making syrup?

[aj]

Once all mine have sat a few weeks I will be using a juicer for mine. They are so crispy when harvested it's shame to let them go floppy but it's the best way to get them nice and sweet.

[lottie lou]

Due to lack of juicer does anyone reckon if I blitz the yacon in the food processor, boil it up in a drop of water it would shove through a sieve?

[squeezyjohn]

I've just made my first Yacon syrup ever from a bunch harvested a few weeks ago.  I did mine in a juicer

I would say this ... however you do it ... do peel the yacon first - it made a massive difference to the amount of scum I had to skim off while it was boiling down.  Make sure the juice is as free from bits as possible before boiling down too.  I'm sure a blitz and an apple press would do a great job - but strain it well too.

The syrup is delicious ... very molasses-ey - about 15 big tubers made about 4 litres of juice, which made me one jam-jar full.

[Vinlander]

I still have some sound tubers from the 2012 harvest - though the sweetness has mostly gone the sound bits are still OK as water-chestnut substitute in stir-fries.

A good thing as the late (or rather missing) spring made them very slow this year and I've only found about 30% of the usual harvest.

I stored them 2 places 1) - in the bottom chiller of the fridge - where the ones in open bags did better than the closed bags but still only 30% survived to mid-2013.

2) Under the stairs in ordinary plastic shopping bags (tied tops and a few small tears ensuring no condensation) - very similar to storing apples in pierced bags - about 60% of these made it to mid-2013.

I must stress these are the large, smooth STORAGE TUBERS - not the offsets around the neck of the plant that look like jerusalem artichokes and need to be treated like dahlias - kept cool in nearly dry soil in pots until they start to sprout.

Cheers.

[Jayb]

I've just made my first Yacon syrup ever from a bunch harvested a few weeks ago.  I did mine in a juicer

I would say this ... however you do it ... do peel the yacon first - it made a massive difference to the amount of scum I had to skim off while it was boiling down.  Make sure the juice is as free from bits as possible before boiling down too.  I'm sure a blitz and an apple press would do a great job - but strain it well too.

The syrup is delicious ... very molasses-ey - about 15 big tubers made about 4 litres of juice, which made me one jam-jar full.

Sounds lovely, how long did it take to boil the juice to syrup?

[ed dibbles]

It takes some time to boil down (my first batch took an hour and a half). Although it's hard to say exactly how long because that depends on how much juice you start off with.

Try using a wide shallow pan instead of a tall sided one which will help the juice boil off quicker as a greater surface area is exposed for evaporation.

Just finished our first delicious jar so will make another tomorrow.

[squeezyjohn]

Yes - it does depend on quantity ... and it's better to do it slowly otherwise it will burn to the bottom of the pan when it starts to go thick.

I kept an eye on mine and stirred once it got thick - probably about an hour to reduce it down.

[Vinlander]

To update their remarkable keeping powers: I just sorted through last year's tubers now this year's are ready to store.

Most of the tubers were slightly rotten (to maybe 1/3), partly dried out (1/2 maybe 2/3), but some of them had new bulbous expansions - a new 10-15% at what was the lower end... Fresh new pale growth maybe 3-5cm across that are perfectly edible raw.

Remarkable - though I won't allow so much waste next time I get a good year - I will make some syrup.

Cheers.

[lottie lou]

Harping back to the subject of storage of yacon, due to the rather disastrous attempt to make yacon syrup last year  - virtually blew my food processor up – would it be better to peel, cut up and freeze the yacon for a while and then try to juice it?  The freezing process might soften the tubers and any excess liquid would be boiled off.  Did check price of juicers but sadly too expensive.

To be honest the bit of yacon syrup I did manage to make was quite nice and used it instead of apricot jam for glazing.  My diabetic friend said she preferred candarel!!