Allotments 4 All

Parcel sent First Class post to Blisters at lunch - so hopefully will arrive tomorrow???

I have put some White Oca into it but forgot the planting instructions. I'll post these tonight on this thread when I get home.

Last year i bought 5 tubers of white oca from Real Seeds. They yielded large tubers which we ate (about 4 dinners worth in a roasted vegetable dish), lots of medium tubers which I have saved to replant this year (about 20 of these) and some smaller tubers. Comments from the forum indicate that the smaller tubers still grow good sized tubers and it is these that are in the PTP.

The Real seeds instructions are:

Use and store as you would potatoes. So store in a paper (not plastic) bag until spring. Plant in spring about a foot apart - if tips are up and there is a frost it will kill the tips, so as with potatoes earth up and protect if frost is forecast. I planted mine the same depth as my seed potatoes and in the same row. For harvesting - unlike potatoes they only form tubers when the days shorten so the advice is to leave them in the gorund until a week after frost has killed the tops. Store as per potatoes, checking regularly that none are going rotten.

The blurb on the packet also says that before eating they need to be left on a sunny windowsill for a couple of weeks to sweeten otherwise they can be a bit tart. But IMO they improve with age. The blurb also says that the size of the original tuber planted makes no difference to the size of the yield so eat the biggest and use the smaller for next years crop.

They are not susceptible to blight. I was so impressed with these ( and i can be a bit of a sceptic) that i have cut back my potato crop, bought some red oca as well so that the majority of "potatoes" this year will be oca.

Yippee I’m after Blisters,  :)
Suzanne I have never tried Oca, so I will try yours when the parcel arrives and swap for Jerusalem Artichokes. Also thanks for the planting advice.

I put a couple of packs with 5 tubers each. If there are none left for the last on the list let me know and I will send a few seperately. I want to save a few to put in Jeannines parcel.

Guess what arrived today ;D ;D ;D

I'll go through it tonight and get it back in the post tomorrow.

Go home last night to find the parcel had arrived,  ;D

had a good look last night and will post it off to Princescruffster today.

Thanks again Natasha,

Suzan took 2 of your Oca and there is still 4 left.  :)

Thank you,
It's getting close!

Hurray!  Hurray!  It's my turn  :D.   Sooooooooo excited!!!

looked at the oca online look very intresting!!

ooooooo must be me soon  :D sooo excited its better than christmas for a seedaholic  ;D

take your mind of the chocolate then!!

Yep sure has  ;D

Princescruffster - has it arrived yet, I posted it on Friday first class?

Hi everybody,
the parcel arrived this morning, thank you very much to all of you, I'll sort it out tonight and it will be back on the road tomorrow to those who missed this round.

This is the order:

leesa662000
star
flowerofshona
gunnerbee

I suggest that the last person on the list should be erikaz1, who has a neighbour gardening for charity and she was asking for spare veg seeds ( see her message in the swap shop), so no need to send it back to me. Can you please ask for receipt at your post office, as a proof of postage, there were some seed parcels lost and we don't want it to happen to us.

Thanks again to all lovely gardeners here.

And a big THANK YOU Natasha for organising it.   :-* :-* :-*

Thanks Natasha
The fruits of your labours will soon be blooming
Cheers
MR

I agree, well done Natasha for organising it and well done to everyone for posting it (or even hand delivering it ;) ;D )

I loved being involved!   ;D

Just giving this a bump, did you get the parcel leesa? Its been very quiet for a while, just wondered if its still on the way round ;)

I'm sorry people for the delay, the parcel is on the road.
:-*

Yay....it came this morning! I will post it on again tomorrow :D :D