Gourmet Roots Collection

This selection of unusual and easy root vegetables will keep you well-supplied with nutritious, potato substitutes without the fear of potato blight!

Gourmet Roots Collection comprises 12 x 12cm Super Plugs 3 of each of the following varieties:

• Chinese Artichoke – An excellent addition to the veg plot: unusual, prolific, low maintenance and perennial.  Not many vegetables could boast such claims! They are very popular in French cuisine where they are known as Crosnes. This hardy perennial from the mint family produces 20 to 30 knobbly white tubers from each plant ready to harvest from November to March. The tubers have a delicious nutty flavour and crispy texture. They add crunch to salads, can be lightly steamed and sauteed with herbs, or used as an addition to stir fries in place of water chestnuts. Height: 45cm (18”). Spread: 30cm (12”).
• Jerusalem Artichoke ‘Papas’ – With reddish-purple skin, these knobbly, nutty tubers are one of the most rewarding vegetable crops. A close relative of sunflowers, tubers are produced in abundance and can be roasted, baked, or sautéed. Simply cut the stems down when they have been blackened by the frost and harvest. Leave some tubers in the ground for next years harvest. Height: 3m (10′). Spread: 90cm (36″).
• Oca ‘Giggles’ – Oca provides both starchy tubers and edible leaves, known as ‘Peruvian Wood Sorrel’, which can be used in salads. Prepare Ocas just like potatoes – mashed, boiled, roasted, and fried, or grate raw Oca tubers into salads. Add them to soups and stews. They have a sweet and nutty flavour. Height and Spread: 50cm (20”).
• Yacon ‘Inca Red’ – An unusual and delicious tuber, widely grown in South America for its crunchy texture and sweet pear-like flavour. Similar in appearance to a sweet potato but with the texture of water chestnuts, yacon makes a fabulous addition to stir fries and salads or try tossing it in olive oil and roasting with other root vegetables. The juice from yacon tubers can also be simmered to make a sweet syrup similar to honey or maple syrup. Containing an indigestible sugar called Inulin, both the tubers and syrup are suitable for diabetics and yacon syrup is virtually calorie-free! Yacon makes a particularly attractive crop in the garden with bushy growth and large, lush leaves which lend an exotic feel to borders or the vegetable plot. Height: 1.8m (6′). Spread: 100cm (39″).