Yacón (Smallanthus sonchifolius) aka Bolivian Sunroot
Yacón is an Andean root crop in the sunflower family (Asteraceae), related to dahlias, Jerusalem artichokes and sunflowers! The plants produce edible storage roots, which have been called ground apple for their sweet taste and crunchy texture. After a little curing and exposure to sunlight, the roots become sweeter as the Fructooligosaccharide (FOCs) are converted into fructose, glucose and sucrose.
Jump to Yacón Notes | Jump to Yacón Varieties
OUR WORK
- In 2021 The Utopian Seed Project plans to keep working with more varieties and begin developing regional market opportunities. We will also attempt to grow yacón from seed saved in 2020.
- In 2020 we trialed three new varieties from William Whitson’s crop improvement work at Cultivariable. We’ll be assessing their productivity in the Southeast as well as the flavor of the roots.
- In 2019, a small planting of just six plants of ‘Yanna’s’ variety produced a large quantity of at our experimental farm, which we served at our annual Trial to Table Farm Dinner.
- Prior to 2019, board member, Yanna Fishman has been growing a single yacón variety for a number of years. It is a proven producer in this region and we are building on her work.
Yacon aka Bolivian Sunroot coming in. This is Cusco, one of four varieties we`re growing this year.
We cut all our propagation material for our Yacon and have started processing the storage tubers. We`re making Yacon raisins, Yacon fruit leather, Yacon sugar, Yacon wine, and Yacon syrup. Everything is in process right now, but I`ll results as they come in.
This variety of Yacon (aka Bolivian Sunroot) didn`t produce the largest tubers, but it does have a beautiful red skin and is meant to come out of the ground sweeter than some of the other varieties. It sure is pretty!!
The yacon or Bolivian sunroot is enjoying this warm weather. We have started a lot of the variety we`ve been growing in WNC (named, Cusco). We`ll be selling starts at the @ashevilleherbfest first weekend of May in a shared booth with @sowtrueseed
A few weeks ago we made yacon syrup and shared in with board member, Chef Ashleigh Shanti. Here`s what she did with it 😍
This morning, for science, I am drinking a lot of coffee. Here is a 50/50 mix of coffee beans and roasted yacon grounds (dried left over yacon after juicing for yacon syrup). The yacon grounds were still sweet and after dry roasting took on a pleasant nutty type aroma.
Yacon Syrup! Yesterday we finally made some sweet delicious yacon syrup from our yacon roots. 4 kilograms (~9lbs) of roots made 3 liters (~12.5 cups) of juice which boiled down to 250 ml (1 cup) of syrup.
These are the yacon varieties we grew this year. Three from the @cultivariable improvement program and our `local` one, which obviously isn`t local but has been grown here for a long time (I`m tracking down more info at the moment). The local one looks prettier because it`s more recently harvested. We made chips yesterday and today we`re making syrup, more details to follow!
Yacon aka Bolivian Sunroot (Smalanthus sonchifolius) is an Andean root crop in the sunflower family that produces crisp and sweet storage tubers over a long growing season.
With any luck some of this harvest is going to @keiaishungry at @milkglasspie for a dessert option at our upcoming #TrialToTable dinner (link in the bio). Note: this isn`t 100% confirmed!
#tuspyacon #yacon #boliviansunroot #farming #farm
#Yacon #tuspyacon #boliviansunroot #farming #andeanroots
@cultivariable bred this variety and named it Sol Duc.
#Yacon #boliviansunroot #tuspyacon
#yacon #boliviansunroot #tuspyacon #andeanroots #rootcrops
We`ve got the BEST team behind this project 💚
#Repost @foodordeath_ (@get_repost)
・・・
Yacon Syrup from @blueandyellowmakes, Garum, Fermented Tumeric and Young Pinecone Capers on this HUGE wreckfish collar... wild, crazy and sooo intense. I CANNOT WAIT to open a restaurant so your minds can be just as blown 🤯😆
#tuspyacon #yaconsyrup #starchef
The craziest thing happened when I sipped the coffee... I was transported straight to a high Andean Bolivian village where I was working with a school group on constructing a greenhouse for the community. We were using massive ecalytus posts as the main structure.
In the mornings we were given breakfast and coffee by the local women and the coffee came black and sweet but with an unusual taste that I never questioned but couldn`t identify. Today, I think, I know what they were using... Now I need to go into research mode and see if this is a common practice!
#yacon #boliviansunroot #yaconcoffee #andeanroots
Full instructions via our latest blog post (link via our bio).
#yacon #boliviansunroot #tuspyacon #yaonsyrup
#tuspyacon #yacon #boliviansunroot #experimentalroots #andeanrootcrop
You can eat yacon raw, but here we sliced and dehydrated. The dried slices have a raisen-y texture and sweetness!
#yacon #boliviansunroot #tuspyacon #experimentalroots #andeanrootcrop
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.