How to grow Babingtons Leek

Babingtons Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii) are amazing little plants, I wrote another post on them and thought I should describe how to grow them.  They are edible and perennial and a bit more interesting than a regular leek.  Unfortunately they are on the brink of extinction in Australia and many other parts of the world.  I am selling small bulbils of Babingtons leeks in the hope that other people will grow and enjoy them and help them to become less rare.

Here are some notes on how to grow them, please note that I am no expert on Babingtons leeks, if something I say does not work feel free to try something else.  If you find some other way to grow them that works better please let me know and I will gladly pass this information on to anyone who wishes to grow them.

This is only a brief description of how to grow Babingtons leeks that has worked for me.  For information on how to grow any other perennial vegetables please go to my growing notes page.  To buy Babingtons leeks or other perennial vegetables, herbs, heirloom vegetable seeds, water kefir grains or milk kefir grains etc please go to my for sale page.

Babingtons Leek bulbs - should flower next year

Growing Babingtons Leek from from Bulbs
At this stage I do not have enough plants to sell mature bulbs but figured I would mention it for when your plants are larger or if I ever have enough to sell them too.  This is simple, plant the bulb a few cm deep and give it 15cm to 20cm or so from its nearest neighbour.  Plant it about the depth of the bulbs width, if it is too shallow it will drag itself deeper with the use of contractile roots.  Give it plenty of water, sunlight and mulch.  You should be able to harvest the leek by cutting it near the soil and have it re-sprout, if you get the timing right and the bulb was large enough it should still send up a flower stalk.  Each year if all goes well the underground bulb should divide into 2 or 3 mature bulbs for you and they may grow a few other smaller bulbs too

Babingtons Leek will die down to a bulb in summer, it may be possible to convince them to grow through but I have not tried that yet so can not comment.  If storing the bulbs be careful not to leave the bulbs out somewhere to dry out too much, also be careful not to leave them in soil that is too wet as they may rot.

Babingtons Leek plant almost ready to flower

 

Growing Babingtons Leek from Plants
If I have too many bulbils left over that sprout I plan to sell them as small plants.  Much like any other variety of leek, plant it reasonably deep to encourage a long white shank.  As above, plant 15cm to 20cm from its nearest neighbour, any closer than this will stunt the plant a little.  Plenty of sun, water and mulch will ensure the fastest growth rate.  During the first year they will be small and may not put on much growth above ground, this is normal.  They will mostly take 2 or 3 years until mature enough to flower.

Babingtons leek bulbils - note the small size

Growing Babingtons Leek from Bulbils
I mostly sell bulbils of the Babingtons leek, these are tiny leek bulbs that have formed on top of the flower stalk.  For this reason I will go into a little more detail in this section.

Each bulbil will most likely be genetically identical to the parent (although slight mutations may occur from time to time).  The bulbils are tiny, probably around the size of a pea but sometimes even smaller.  Bulbils are produced in early Summer but will not grow or do anything until Autumn or Winter.  They are ready when they fall from the flower stalk, I sell them when they are ready and will store and grow anything that is not sold.  If you buy bulbils as soon as they are ready you have two options: you can plant straight away or you can store them for later.  Each method has its merits and dangers, I will try to do a little of each to work out what is best.

Babingtons leek bulbils

Storing the bulbils gives you the peace of mind that they will not be eaten by anything or rot in the soil but runs the risk that they will dry out and die.  You also run the risk that they will not be in the soil when they are ready to grow or that they may not receive whatever signal they need in order to resume growth.  Some bulbils will look green, others will develop a brown outer skin.  I assume that the green ones will not cope with storage as well as the brown ones.  I also assume that the brown ones will be less likely to wake up when it is time to grow.

Planting the bulbils immediately runs the risk of rotting or being eaten by earwigs or whatever but also ensures that they will not dry too much and they are ready to grow when they need to grow.  I plant the bulbils a little under the soil surface or sometimes directly on top of the soil in the light.  I have heard that a grower overseas normally plants them 2 inches deep.  I urr on the side of caution, if they are not deep enough they will work it out or I could dig them and replant them when they are larger, if they are too deep they may not have enough energy to reach the sunlight.  It is best to plant them with the growing tip pointing up, quite often it is difficult to tell which way is up and in these instances it is best to plant them on their side.  Planted on their side they will work it out, planted upside down they may die.

No matter what you chose to do the bulbils will not do a great deal of anything until Autumn or even Winter/Spring.  Occasionally they may begin to grow in late Summer but only if the weather is cool.   Babingtons leeks are often rather small looking plants in their first year and the next season are far larger.  The bulbils will often take 2 to 3 years to be mature enough to flower, that being said if they are very happy they can flower in their first year.

Babbingtons leek, bulbils developing on the flower head

Growing Babingtons leeks is simple
While it sounds like a lot of work it isnt, most people who grow Babingtons leeks have a patch of them and pretty much ignore them other than to harvest them and to marvel at their amazing flower head.  Often overseas growers (I do not know any other Australian growers) tell me that Babingtons leeks thrive on neglect.  I figured I would go into a bit of detail so that you have the best chances of harvesting leeks as soon as possible.  I also want to make sure that if someone buys Babingtons leeks from me that they know what to expect and do not rip the plants out when they have not flowered in the first year from bulbils.  The pictures of the bulbils next to the measuring tape will help to ensure that if anyone buys bulbils from me that they know exactly what they are buying.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask, while I may not know the answer I will do my best to tell you what works and does not work for me.

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Skirret a forgotten perennial vegetable

I have never met a person who dislikes Skirret (Sium sisarum) and I dont expect this to change.  Very few people in Australia grow skirret or have even heard of this remarkable vegetable, but those that have tried it all seem to like it.

Skirret seedlings still with their juvenile leaves

What is skirret

Skirret is primarily an ancient root vegetable, but the leaves, stems and seeds are also edible and tasty enough in their own way.  This perennial root crop was grown and eaten across most of Europe for centuries prior to the Spanish conquest of South America.  After this time potatoes largely replaced skirret for a number of reasons.

Skirret is a perennial vegetable which, unlike many other perennial vegetables, also freely sets viable seed each year.  Most people who grow skirret reproduce it by breaking the plant into many smaller plants after harvest and replanting them.  Similar to yacon, the part you eat of skirret is different to the part you plant so you can increase the number of plants each year easily while still being able to enjoy the full harvest.

Seed grown skirret displays a lot of genetic diversity, I assume this is because no real breeding work has ever been done on it and it is mostly propagated by division rather than seeds.  Serious breeding of vegetables often results in highly inbred strains which contain all the desired traits but have little to no genetic diversity.  Sometimes this deliberate selection goes a little too far and the plants become highly susceptible to inbreeding depression (such as has happened to carrots and corn), other times it does not appear to bother the plants too much (such as tomatoes or beans).

The same skirret seedlings getting larger

What does skirret taste like

I am bad at trying to describe what things taste like and it has been a while since I last ate skirret but I will give it a go.  Skirret tastes kind of like carrot or parsnip or even a little like sweet potato or potato, but is sweeter than any of them.  That is probably not a great description as carrot and potato taste nothing alike.  Many people use skirret in the same dishes that potato, sweet potato, parsnip or carrot would be used.

Skirret also used to be used for deserts and the like, but I am not exactly sure how/what they do with it in these meals.  As mentioned earlier, most of Europe grew and ate skirret until the potato came along so it has a long history behind it as a food plant.

Skirret contains reasonably high levels of sugars and tastes rather sweet.  When the Germans were searching for alternative plants to sugar cane they reported that skirret ranked below the white sugar beet but above red beetroot.  Some of the common names for skirret translate into things like sweet root, water parsnip and sweet water root.  From these names you get the impression that skirret is sweet and likes to grow near water.

At this point I perhaps should have re-potted the plants separately

You can see the plant in the middle is already starting to divide

Problems with skirret and how to overcome them

Skirret can have thin roots, these can be a pain to prepare for a meal.  The roots are always long and there are always copious amounts of them, but if they are too fiddly to prepare no one will bother to grow or eat this remarkable plant.

Skirret can have woody cores to the roots.  Some people do not mind this, they cook the skirret and strip the roots with their teeth and discard the core.  I cant be bothered doing this and wont eat a vegetable which requires this kind of treatment.  First year plants grown from seed tend to have the woody core, as they age the core gets smaller or apparently even disappears in improved strains.  Lots of water seems to help prevent any woodyness at all.  Considering that this plant grows in marshes in the wild it makes sense that soil moisture would be beneficial.

Skirret loves cooler weather, I dont think it matters how cold it gets the skirret is never bothered.  It goes dormant over winter and is dug/harvested/divided during that time.  It does not love the heat.  As I currently live in an arid climate, lots of heat and very little water, growing skirret takes a bit of work.  Growing in part shade, or in a styrofoam box to help insulate the soil can help this plant to grow in less than ideal climates.  I have it growing in a pot which I can submerge in water on hot windy days.

Skirret is a plant that would benefit from some serious breeding work.  Pretty much every problem it has should be simple enough to overcome if someone puts the time and resources into breeding improved skirret varieties.  I honestly think if someone was serious about breeding skirret that it would only take 3 or 4 years to turn skirret from its current form into something truly remarkable.  If you ever do this breeding and grow improved varieties of skirret let me know as I would love to buy your plants or seeds.

Strong and healthy skirret

Everything looks good

Breeding potential of skirret

One of the great things about skirret is how happily it sets seed each year and it produces many seeds even if only one plant is growing.  Being in the Apiaceae family they produce copious amounts of seed if allowed, similar to a carrot, but in skirret the seed seems to display a lot of genetic diversity even if obtained from a single plant.

Most people who grow skirret do not grow from seed, instead they find a plant and do not let it flower so that all the energy is put into root development.  I think this is a mistake as it is not difficult to find a nice skirret plant, divide it and let one of the divisions go to seed so that you can continuously improve your stock.  Leaving a single plant in your patch to flower is not that great an imposition.  While letting several plants flower would be best, a single plant flowering and setting seed would still give a crop of diverse seedlings from which to cull and only keep the best ones.  The flowers attract a lot of beneficial insects so leaving a single plant in the back corner to flower is of benefit to the rest of your vegetables.

Skirret grows many edible roots which are nice and long, so there are no issues with root length or number, the problem comes from them being too thin and often having a woody core.  It should be possible to breed for superior varieties with fatter and less woody roots.  First year plants are more likely to have woody cores and plants that do not get enough moisture will also have a woody core so selecting for lack of fiber can be a bit tricky.  That being said, many people who have selected for improved plants overseas only do so for about 2 generations and then have plants that they are happy with.

I do wonder if skirret was grown using aquaponics or wicking bed if the woody core issue would be completely resolved due to constant access to water.  If this were to be the case then skirret breeding could focus on fatter roots, having one single focus should mean that improvements are made a lot faster as culling can be more harsh.

One of the issues we have in Australia is that so few people grow skirret that we probably have a bit of a genetic bottleneck.  Hopefully the natural genetic diversity on this plant will ensure that we can still select for improved varieties and make ground reasonably fast.  I would love someone to take on skirret and breed some improved varieties, if the woody core could be bred out of skirret there is no reason that people would not grow it in backyards or even for market gardens.  As mentioned earlier I have never heard of anyone who dislikes skirret, improved varieties could make this crop more common once again.  Skirret does not always cope with summer in my climate so does not always flower (or necessarily even survive) so I probably wont do a lot of serious breeding with it.  That being said each year my skirret does flower I will save and plant seed from the best plants and cull the weaker plants.

Skirret plants with adult leaves

Where to get skirret in Australia

People who know a lot about rare vegetables often tell me that skirret is not in Australia, and due to problems importing the seed that we will never be able to grow skirret.  I dont know how to respond to them as I have grown skirret before and I am also currently growing skirret.

Skirret plants in a small pot

If I divide my plants I will try to sell some crowns over winter on my for sale page.  I will also try to save seed from my best plants each year to sell on my for sale page but skirret doesnt like the heat and aridity of my climate so I can make no assurance that I will have seed or spare plants for sale.  This year my plants are growing very strong and have all divided into several plants, one even looks as though it may be about to send up flower stalk so everything is looking positive.

Failing that some Australian seed companies occasionally carry skirret seed in small amounts and I even know of a lady in Tasmania who sells skirret plants (as well as some other rare perennial vegetables) and will post them to the mainland.  While I have never bought from her we have conversed and I believe that she is honest, that being said I take no responsibility for her service or plants.

At some stage I will include some growing notes on skirret.  If you have never tried skirret I think you should get some and grow it. 

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Rainbow Jelly Cake

I took on the stupid idea of making Mr 4 a rainbow jelly cake for his birthday. With some sound advise from a friend I embarked on using agar agar as it sets much quicker. This sure was a help. The cake looks great besides some colouring issues. But it is nasty to eat. It sort of crumbles in your mouth, the texture makes me gag. Flavour is fine though.

I found very few recipes online for Jelly cakes using Agar Agar is was just a bit of luck of the draw if it would turn out. I think I will only use half the agar next time, will run some tests first to find out just how little agar agar can be used so the cake still stands up but is actually edible. The recipe I used is this

Blue top layer with lollies (I would do a clear top layer to show the lollies better next time)
250ml liquid (I used part blueberry juice from stewing some blueberries and part water)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp agar agar

Milk Layer (I would colour this blue next time or whatever colour I wanted on top)
125ml water
125ml milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp agar agar

Red Layer
250ml liquid (about half a punnet stewed and mushed strawberries, rest water)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp agar agar
(I also chopped the remainder of the punnet to put in this layer)

Orange Layer
250ml liquid
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp agar agar

Green Layer
250ml liquid (I used pineapple juice, really should have used this for an orange or yellow layer)
just under 1/4 sugar
1 tsp agar agar

I made each layer as I went
1. place each layers ingredients in a saucepan, brought to the boil for a few seconds to make sure all had boiled. Pulled off heat and added the colour till desired colour.
2. pour into mould
3. Start boiling next layer.
4. pour into mould once the previous layer was JUST set, I have read if you let it set too much the layers wont stick together and slide apart, you can gently scrap the previous layer with a fork if this happens. Each layer took longer then the last to set. The first set before I had the second layer ready. I had to wait and reheat the green layer as the orange wasnt ready.

Keep going till you have all layers done. Then I set in the fridge over night.

Good luck with your making :)

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Tomatoes Potato Leaf vs Regular Leaf

People often talk about regular leaf tomatoes or potato leaf tomatoes, I get a few questions about this so I figured I would write a post explaining what is meant by these terms.  I have also seen one place sell a variety of tomato that they call "potato leaf tomato" and I find this confusing as there are many varieties of potato leaf tomatoes, I am growing 4 of them this year myself.

Have a look at these two leaves, they are both leaves from tomato plants.  Please ignore the yellowing, that has nothing to do with leaf type, that leaf is a bit older.

Potato Leaf compared with Regular Leaf

It is not too difficult to tell them apart, the leaf on the left looks like the leaf on a potato plant, the leaf on the right looks like the leaf on most varieties of tomato.

Regular Leaf (RL) tomato

Regular Leaf (often abbreviated RL)

This is the typical leaf type that most people are familiar with, most varieties of tomato are regular leaf.  The leaf edges are serrated quite a bit.  There are a lot of variations on this basic theme in terms of the width/length of leaf depending on the specific variety, climate and growing methods.  There are a few other variations such as angora, variegated etc but they are not easy to come across in Australia so I wont talk about them.  Some leaves are very narrow and are sometimes called dissected, others are wispy or droopy or look like the foliage of a carrot.  These are easily recognised from a distance even by my 5 year old as the leaves of a tomato plant.  All of this is referred to as Regular Leaf (RL).

Potato Leaf (PL) tomato

Potato Leaf (often abbreviated PL)

These leaves usually have very few interruptions of the leaf edge.  They are fat and large leaves. Newly germinated seedlings sometimes dont show their PL nature until they are a few inches tall, others show it as soon as they grow their true leaves.  PL leaves often have a thicker cuticle than RL leaves or a higher density of trichomes (which are tiny little hairs on the leaf).  Some claim that makes them more tolerant of foliage diseases but I have seen no proof of this.   Leaf shape can be different on a single plant with some showing more or less smooth edges, all of this is normal for PL.  Scientists have divided the PL leaf forms into various different classes but few of them are available in Australia and it makes no real difference so I wont write anything about them.

What is the deal with growing Potato Leaf tomatoes?

Some people claim that potato leaf tomatoes taste better, unfortunately that is a half truth.  Almost all Potato Leaf tomatoes are heirlooms and generally heirloom tomatoes taste great.  Some tomato varieties have a Potato Leaf version as well as a Regular Leaf version, I can not taste any difference.

People often claim that Regular Leaf tomatoes do not cross pollinate while Potato Leaf tomatoes will cross readily.  Unfortunately this is not at all true.  Most modern bred varieties of tomato will not cross pollinate easily (literatures states around 5% crossing without intervention when being grown side by side), almost all heirloom tomatoes do cross pollinate, some far more than others.  As most Potato Leaf tomatoes are heirlooms people have got themselves confused here.  The tomato I grow that crosses most readily is Reisetomate, it is a regular leaf plant.  It cross pollinates so much that I even grow it in a separate garden to all my other tomatoes.  Try not to be fooled, Potato Leaf does not necessarily mean heirloom, just as heirloom does not necessarily mean Potato Leaf.

Potato Leaf is considered to be a recessive trait.  When breeding new varieties if Potato Leaf is crossed with Regular Leaf then all the seedlings will be Regular Leaf.  This makes it useful to see early on  if the cross has worked or if the flower self pollinated and the plant is worth growing on or not.  If growing different varieties of tomato then Potato Leaf can also indicate early on if that particular seed has remained pure.  If a potato leaf variety grows regular leaf the chances are high that it has crossed.  Some potato leaf varieties do occasionally throw a regular leaf plant even when they have not crossed, so things do get a little confusing here as there is a little more to it than a simple dominant/recessive trait.

"Julia Child" a great potato Leaf tomato variety

I have heard theories about potato leaf being more resistant to insects and regular leaf being more resistant to insects and visa versa, but I have found nothing conclusive that back up this.  Potato leaf would possibly restrict airflow more than regular leaf, so it is possible that potato leaf would face more mold problems in damp environments but again I have no proof that confirms or denies this.  I live in an area of low humidity, so it doesnt matter to me in the slightest.

I have also heard anecdotal evidence that potato leaf varieties are more hungry than regular leaf as they require more resources in order to build more leaf, again I am yet to find any research that either backs or refutes this claim.  It kind of makes sense to me, but some of the largest tomato plants I have ever seen have been regular leaf, I assume they used a lot of resources to grow that large.  I have one regular leaf tomato that grows a large shrub to about 8 feet in every direction, it is surely using a lot of resources to build all of that stem.

Some people think the Potato Leaf plants look nicer, I certainly think they look more ornamental and would not look out of place in a flower garden.  To be honest, I wish that I had more potato leaf tomato varieties as I simply like the look of them.

At the end of the day though the leaf shape makes no real difference to me and I doubt it makes any real difference to taste, growth rates or anything other than aesthetics, so I base my planting decisions on the taste of the fruit and performance of the plant.

I do sell seeds of some heirloom tomatoes as well as perennial vegetables on my for sale page, you should have a look if you are interested.

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How to Grow Perennial Vegetables

Growing notes for Perennial Vegetables - Plant Once Harvest Forever!

This is my growing notes page, for my "For Sale" page please click here.

I used to grow some amazing vegetables when I was a teenager, when I left home I lost most of them.  Slowly I am tracking them down again and now have a rather eclectic range of vegetables which I sometimes sell for other people to grow and enjoy.  Some of these vegetables are on the brink of extinction in Australia, others are far more common, regardless I have found them all to be valuable, productive and worth saving and distributing.

I offer to provide growing notes to people for the plants they buy from me, but after cut and pasting emails I think that making a list of growing notes here and linking to them is probably a better way of doing this.  I plan to put in some more growing notes when I have time, if there is anything that I have sold you that is not covered please let me know and I will email growing notes through to you.




How to Grow Water Chestnuts (Eleocharis dulcis)

Water chestnuts need frost free warm weather to grow properly.  While technically they are a tropical plant (just like the tomato) they can and do successfully grow in cool climates such as Canberra.  If you buy corms in the cooler months store them in damp soil somewhere dark and safe until Spring.  Please check on them from time to time to ensure they are not rotting, they should be firm to the touch.

When planting water chestnuts the biggest mistake people make is rotting them.  If you put the corms under water and they do not have any leaves above water they will drown and rot.  They need leaves to be out of the water as they use them like a snorkel.  I start them in a punnet of moist but not wet soil, just like any seedling.  I normally do this towards the end of the frosty months and keep it under cover somewhere as they do not like frost.  

When they have sprouted I put the punnet so the bottom half is under water and the top half is in the air.  This way they have a lot of water but the corm is still above the water level.  When they are about 10cm tall I pull them out of the punnet, separate them and plant them in their proper home which can be anything from a 10L bucket to a swimming pool.  I fill that with water so that only just the tips of the leaves are poking out of the water.  From there the plants get a lot taller and I keep that water level as constant as I can until they die down in Autumn.  After the water chestnuts have died down I let them dry off for a few weeks prior to harvest.


You will get a huge yield of corms from each one you plant, the further you space them apart the larger the corms they will produce.  I am told 1 to 2 square meters per corm is adequate, but I dont have that kind of space.  If you crowd them they will produce masses of tiny corms that are too fiddly to bother eating.  These tiny corms can be planted the next year and will produce huge yields of large corms if given the room to grow.  The better the soil the better they will grow.  I have put more comprehensive notes on how I grow them in buckets on my water chestnut page here.





How To Grow Perennial Leeks  (Allium ampeloprasum)

When posting these I trim the leaves, wrap in damp newspaper and put into a zip lock bag, I have found that by doing this the plants undergo less stress and grow faster.  They do sulk a little after being replanted, but if you give them a lot of water they pick up pretty fast. 

You will need to plant them deep to help them produce long white shanks and water them a lot to get them established.  Once established they will survive with minimal watering but will produce best with regular watering.  We normally plant about 10cm apart, if you plant them closer they will still grow but will not get as large, if you plant them further apart they will grow larger.  Frost is not a problem for these and if it gets too hot and dry they may die down to odd little bulbs and reshoot when it is cooler.

Harvest them when they are the right size for you, some people eat them when they are tiny others when they are large.  When you harvest they should have multiple babies growing that you can replace them with.  In the early years to help build up numbers you can cut off the roots with a few mm of shank attached, if you put this in a jar with a little water it will reshoot and can be replanted.  Sometimes they will send up a dozen shoots, other times only 3 or 4.

They do not often produce viable seed so I normally try to cut off the flower stalks so they can put energy into growing.  If they flower the pollen may cross with other leeks so be careful if seed saving other varieties (apparently the offspring will not be as good as either parent).  I have had viable seed produced once after floods and odd weather.  Those flower heads also produced tiny leeks on the flower stalk as well as seed.  I have planted both but have not had them long enough to see if anything useful results from them.  If either are exceptional I will keep them separate from the regular perennial leeks and offer them.


 
How To Grow Babingtons Leek (Allium ampeloprasum var babingtonii)

I have gone into a bit of detail on how to grow Babingtons leek in a different post.  They will grow much like any other leek.  The closer together they are planted the more competition they have and the smaller and slower they will grow.  As I have wanted them to grow as fast as possible I give them up to 20cm between each plant.  Planting them as close as 5cm between each plant will still give you a crop, but they may take a few extra years to flower and they may never develop thick shanks.



How To Grow Giant Russian Garlic (Botanically this is a type of leek and not a true garlic Allium ampeloprasum)

This plant is botanically a leek, but used in the same way as garlic, it will grow and produce well in areas where garlic normally will not survive.  Heavy frost is not a problem, nor is dry heat, or humid heat, this plant survives a lot of neglect but produces best when taken care of, weeded and well watered.  Frost is not an issue for these and it makes the taste stronger, and they tend to die down around Christmas so are not too water hungry.

Generally planted around the shortest day (June 21) and harvested around the longest day (December 21) but does fine if planted a few months either side of these dates.  I have planted cloves that are over 18 months old and they have performed just as well as the fresh cloves. 

I normally plant them about 3cm deep with the pointy end up (if planted upside down they may die), and about 15cm apart.  If you plant too shallow they will work it out, if they are too deep they may not have enough energy to grow to the light.  In the future if you cannot remember which way up to plant, plant them on their side and they will sort themselves out.

Russian garlic has a slightly different life cycle than regular garlic.  If you plant a single large clove, in a growing season it will generally grow into a large bulb made of 5 or 6 cloves with a heap of hard bulbils growing underneath the bulb as well as a large purple flower head made of hundreds of flowers.  The bulbils may or may not grow if planted; if they do grow they mostly grow into a large single clove about the size of a ping pong ball called a "round".  Small cloves also generally produce a single round instead of a large bulb.  If you plant the round it will usually grow into a normal clove of 5 or 6 large cloves.  I try to plant a mix of small cloves, large cloves and rounds each year.  With that said: some years we get mostly rounds, some years we do not get any.

Harvest plants after they die down around Christmas time.  The flowers are said to be sterile, but they are not.  I normally cut the flower head off after the plant dies down and leave it on the soil somewhere.  Out of the thousands of seeds each flower head produces I normally have 2 or 3 plants sprout up.  As far as seed saving goes they are not meant to cross with any other alliums so should not give you any problems.


 
How To Grow Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius formerly Polymnia sonchifolia)

Yacon is by far my favourite vegetable, I have never met anyone who dislikes the taste of yacon, all kids love yacon!  It is easily grown in full sun or part shade, they grow from waist height to well over 2m tall depending on the year.  The more fertile the soil the better harvest you will get.  They can survive on low water but do best when given a lot of water.

We normally plant them 5cm deep and about 30cm apart, if you space them further you will get a larger crop.  They tend to shade things out that are growing under them, but you can easily grow a fast crop of something like beetroot under them while they are little and something like a climbing bean growing up them when they are taller if you would like.  They exude inulin and other sugars from their roots which feeds earthworms and helps nearby plants grow better.  We had very few earthworms when we moved here, but I could always find them under the yacon.

Here growing is dictated by frost, frost kills down the tops of the plants and I harvest the tubers a week or two later.  If you leave the tubers a week or so after digging they sweeten a lot, if you eat them too early they taste like a spicy carrot.  To harvest I carefully dig them up, they will have small purple crowns and large brown tubers that look similar to sweet potatoes.  The brown tubers are the part that is normally eaten, the purple crown is the part you replant to grow more yacon.  Most years you can divide each plant pretty easily.  I keep the purple crowns in a bucket of soil in the garage until spring, but they can survive in the ground if you mulch them and they are not frozen.

We normally peel the tubers and eat them raw, but they can be cooked in a variety of ways and go well in a fruit salad, a stir fry, or any dish that a water chestnut is used.  The tubers store well for a few months but can be frozen and kept for ever.  Frozen tubers are then peeled, chopped and eaten frozen to taste similar to a frozen banana custard!  If you let them thaw they turn black, slimy and look bad so we eat them still frozen.  All parts are edible, but we only eat the tubers, we skin the tubers as the skin has a resinous taste to it.  I suggest trying a little of the skin to see if you like it.  The leaves can be made into a tea that is meant to be good for diabetics and has a lot of other medicinal properties.


 
How To Grow Everlasting Onions (Allium cepa perutile)

These do not really grow a large bulb, they are more of a spring onion type of plant.  That being said if they are divided each year they can form a small bulb that is very similar to the French Shallots that are found in supermarkets.  Plant 10 to 15cm apart and plant reasonably deep, if they are not deep enough they will work it out for you.  Water a lot to settle them in, then water as you would any spring onion.  Over summer they may die down to a small bulb or they may keep growing, it depends on the climate.  The more fertile the soil the faster they grow, but once established they will survive dry and poor soil.  Frost is not an issue with these plants but it may slow their growth a little.

They do not often produce viable seed so I cut off the flower stalk when it appears so they can put more energy into growing and dividing.  If you dig them up and separate them each time they divide it does not take long before you have a large patch of them.  If you do decide to eat the small bulb you can replant the roots with a few mm of bulb attached and it should sprout and continue growing for you.  As with any of the perennial vegetables I sell, unless you want to kill them you will always have them growing and producing food for you.


 
How To Grow Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)

We plant the tubers about 20cm to 30cm apart and 5 to 10cm deep.  Each tuber can produce well over 1kg of tubers in a regular season so they are very productive and valuable to have in the garden.  They grow 2 or 3m tall in a season and grow small sunflower like flowers that do not seem to produce viable seed.  A rich soil and plenty of moisture returns the greatest crop.  If you do not dig them up and eat them or divide them they tend to produce a crop of smaller tubers which are difficult to clean.

It is said that they will stay where you planted them forever as you always miss some tiny tubers when you dig them.  Even though we always miss some tubers I have found that I can easily get rid of them by pulling out any plants early in spring.  Guinea pigs and sheep love the stems and leaves and the high inulin content is meant to be good for ruminants.

I plant in winter or spring (or transplant in early summer) and let them grow until the tops are killed by frost.  Sometimes it takes a few frosts to knock them down fully.  They are sweeter after being hit by frost, but you can dig them up earlier if you want (or if you live in a frost free area).  You do not have to peel these to eat them, just scrub the soil off and either cook any way that you would cook a potato or eat the raw.

They do not store very well out of soil, they store in the crisper of the fridge OK but we find that digging them as needed is easiest and saves space in the fridge.


 
How To Grow QLD Arrowroot (Canna edulis)

Plant 30cm apart with the tip of the growing point at soil level, easy to divide to obtain more plants.  These things love water but do OK out here where it is very dry as long as I mulch or water them.  They grow 2 to 3m tall with large lush tropical looking leaves.  For such a tropical looking plant they survive on very little water.

Very easy to grow, extremely productive, mine do not flower here but I am told that they flower and produce viable seed in other places.  I grow them on the Western side of the vegetable garden to screen the hot summer afternoon sun, I have heard of people growing them in a semi circle under fruit trees to cut as mulch.

Frost kills the tops and leaves but the tubers survive and grow again in spring.  This will form a clump, to create new plants divide it with a spade as long as each part has a growing tip it should do fine.  I tend to separate them in winter and spring before they start to grow but they can be divided at any time of the year if you give them enough water.

Best to eat small tubers as the larger ones get a bit fibrous, leaves can be used in place of banana leaves in cooking or fed to animals.  Tubers can be made into arrowroot flour and is said to have the largest starch particles of any plant, you can even see the starch particles with the naked eye.  Very few people have eaten these in Australia or even recognise them as a valuable food plant, but they are cooked regularly in South America. 




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