One of the unique features of oca is the frequency with which clones manifest phenotypic changes. The most obvious of these changes is to skin color. I haven’t done any careful analysis, but simply dividing the total number of tubers harvested by the number of changes that we have seen, changes to skin color may […]
It has been a busy couple of weeks, so I am behind in posting photos of our ulluco harvest. It turned out to be a pretty good year for ulluco. There were low points; some of the varieties that I got in long distance trades produced very little (the white one with pink spots disappeared […]
Our oca seedlings, sown from this year’s seeds, continue to grow at their own paces. These 53 seedlings (9 have disappeared, probably down a slug’s gullet, since the last update) all resulted from two August sowings and were all grown under the same conditions. Some are still tiny plants with only two or three sets […]
The oca flowering season came to an end this week. All of the plants are still growing strong, but they dropped the last of their flowers. That seems like another bit of evidence that oca have a limited flowering period that is not necessarily related to weather. The weather, other than the wind, which is […]
Fresh camas bulbs(I know that they don’t look that appetizing, but the outer layer is easy to peel once they are steamed.) If you like your food not just slow, but really slow, you should look into camas (Camassia quamash is the most common variety, but there are also Camassia leichtlinii and others). Camas is […]
This was a pretty normal year on the coast of Washington. We had a cool winter, a cool spring, a cool summer, and so far, we’re having a cool fall. We’re close enough to the ocean that the temperature of the Pacific just off shore is a much better predictor of our temperatures than anything […]
Skirret (Sium sisarum) is a plant that is very flexible about harvest. It is a perennial, so you can harvest it at any time of year, after any number of years of growth. It also doesn’t keep very well out of the ground, so it is a plant best harvested whenever you want to eat […]
I know from reading that oca (Oxalis tuberosa) begins to form tubers around the time of the fall equinox and I know from experience that it forms tubers of good eating size about ten weeks later, but what happens in between? Is the rate of growth of the tubers relatively constant, or does more of […]
I have a confession to make. I no longer rush out every morning to scan the oca (Oxalis tuberosa) patch for pods. In fact, I often let a week go by without looking at them. What a difference a couple of months makes! Back in July, I was checking them twice a day, pollinating by […]
The 62 new oca (Oxalis tuberosa) plants that grew from this year’s seeds continue to surprise me with their huge difference in growth rates. Unfortunately, it seems that about 55 of them will be destined for the compost pile, as they are not putting on much growth and will certainly not reach the size necessary […]