Oca

This year, for the first time, I tried growing Oca. I had read about it before, especially in Martin Crawford's books, but until I saw it for sale at Thompson and Morgan I never really got around to trying it. 10 Tubers cost me less than £10 including delivery, so I thought it'd be worth giving them a try.

A bowl of Oca tubers harvested today

I put the tubers in 3 big pots, with 3 tubers in each and 1 left over tuber given to someone in my team at work who shares my interest in trying new fruits and vegetables. The plants themselves are very attractive through the summer, and basically look like a giant vine-like clover plant. The leaves are edible with an extremely lemony taste due to the Oxalic acid, but I found them a bit much to eat in bulk. The odd nibble was OK though.

In terms of the main edible part, the tubers, I guess my review would be a bit mixed. Firstly, I think the yield was a little disappointing - each of my big pots with three tubers in yielded about two bowls of tubers as shown in the picture above. While this is probably about 10x as many tubers as I originally planted, I think that the yield is probably not as good as I would have got from potatoes.

The yields might have been suppressed a bit because we moved house in September, and because I had so many other things to do the Oca ended up being left in a slightly shady corner for a long time. Since Oca mostly forms its tubers late in the year, a reduction in sunshine might have hit yields. On the other hand, frosts came very late this year in Nottingham - I don't recall seeing any ground frost until late November, thanks to such a warm late Summer and Autumn. In a normal year the Oca would have died back probably a month earlier I guess, which I've read would probably also reduce the yield.

In terms of taste, I've tried the tubers raw and boiled. Raw, I wouldn't bother - there isn't much of a taste, although the tubers do have a crunchy texture. Boiled, they were much nicer - the skin tastes lemony, and the inside becomes very soft and floury with a taste mostly like a potato but slightly less sweet. I would say that the hint of lemon from the skin was quite a nice contrast to the flesh.

So far we have:

- attractive plant
- yield probably not as good as potatoes
- taste similar to potato but slightly less sweet, with a lemony skin

I guess Oca has one more benefit, which is that most of its diseases aren't common currently in the UK. I believe that it's immune to diseases like potato blight, and since no-one else nearby is likely to be growing it, the chance of infection with its own pests and diseases should be low. This means that saving and replanting tubers is likely to be less risky than for potatoes.

So will I grow it again next year? I think I will try, using some of the tubers I've dug up this year. There is very little cost to me of doing so, and it is quite a nice looking plant. The main reason not to bother is the yield - I don't think it was amazing this year, and that was after a long warm Autumn. If we have more typical weather next year, I'll be looking to see if the yield is about the same or significantly worse before deciding whether it will make it to year 3 in the garden.