It’s often said Americans never ate a yam in there life we eat sweet potato’s. While its true Yam is used where it does not apply its not like True Yams are not available. Everywhere I shop even at major national stores (on the east coast at least) have Yams (Dioscorea) and Taro ( Colocasia).
Sadly even though I married a tropical Island girl. There way of preparing them it to simply boil with salt and eat with stew. Help. Please share recipes for true Yams and Taro.
I have a lot of spanish and carribean friends. EVERY one of them does the exact same thing. Stew.
I tried a mashed version that was pretty good. Not sure what all went into it though.
Have not really eaten many of those, but I like them.
And yucca. I’m growing all three and don’t know how to prepare them! The taro and yucca especially. I don’t want a million tiny daggers in my throat or neurologic issues. There was a cafe near me that offered yucca fries as an alternative to potatoes and they were really good. Thanks, D
I had Yucca fries in a India restaurant. It was really good. I prefer Yucca fries to the traditional potato fries.
Taro ,whole without skin, can cook with meat. Mashed, make taro cake. True yam, I use it to make milk smoothies. I really like its texture
We just like to bake them like a lower-calorie Russet potato. Spray on a little olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of salt and bake until done. Results in a nice crispy skin and tender inside that is just awesome with a bit of butter.
Canna Lilly eg Canna Edulus is a perfectly edible Yam and tastes peaty good I can confirm after digging up last years roots I did not over winter in the house.
Dalia’s are also perfectly delicious Yams. Also known as ground apples only the Dalia’s eye will grow a new stem. you can remove some of, or if accidently broken off the storage tubers for eating. Dalia’s that have not been selected for flowers or grown for food food processing are called Yacón.
Interesting. Cesar sent me some yacon crowns(thanks). I am growing yacon this year ,the first time. But I didn’t know yacon and Dalia are in the same family. I had food products made with canna starch before. It tastes not bad but I didn’t know it is a type of yam.
its technically a ginger. But culinary a starchy yam.
Yacon and Dalia’s are a ancient intergametic man made hybrid.
How do you eat canna? Is there particular flower color tasted better?
I grew up growing cannas as flowering plants. Never know anyone eating their rhizomes. It is interesting to know. I have two bags full of canna rhizomes ready to be planted.
Found this article.
Good info! I will have to hunt down a start of each of these to try.
So, which of them that yall have mentioned are low care and can overwinter in zone 6b?
Heres what i think has been mentioned so far:
Yams Dioscorea.
Taro Colocasia.
Yacon.
Dalia.
Canna Edulus.
Yucca(these are the south american tropical type rather than the z5 hardy ones that grow wild in the midwest, right?)
We prefer sweet potato over irish, but i just am getting started with Chinese Yam and american groundnut and valencia peanut. And several jerusalem artichoke types.
Amazing that groundnut and JA are native to our usa, and they and chinese yam can overwinter!
Chinese yam though is so big!! I hope its flavor proves nice.
I am very interested in low care root crops that can overwinter!
My wifes culture just boils all “Provisions” in salt water so that what I did. Slightly sweet no off flavors. Yacon was even more sweet slightly fruit flavor. Also gets called Ground Apple.
Probably should be Yuca (only 1 “c”), which is another name for manioc/tapioca/cassava, not the stabby, less-succulent Agave relatives in genus Yucca (of which you can eat the flowers and in some species the pods, but the roots are for soap, not food).
Oh ok thanks for the info! Interesting!
I could use some Canna edulis. I think my current plants might be C. indica, they didn’t form much of a usable rhizome at all. C. edulis is supposed to make big egg-shaped rhizomes if I’m not mistaken.
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I’ve posted this on two other forums, so here’s a primer on distinguishing most of the edible Dioscorea at a glance:
When talking about leaves, I mean the leaves on the upper portion of mature vines. Leaves on the lowest portion, as well as on young vines, can sometimes develop in a different configuration (usually alternate on a vine that otherwise has paired leaves).
Vines that twist to the right (lower left to upper right: the “Z” twist), with paired leaves:
D. rotundata & cayennensis
D. alata
D. polystachya
D. japonica
D. nummularia
D. hamiltonii
Vines that twist to the right (“Z” twist), with alternate leaves:
D. transversa
Vines that twist to the left (lower right to upper left: the “S” twist), with alternate leaves:
D. bulbifera
D. pentaphylla
D. esculenta
D. trifida
D. dumetorum
Pentaphylla leaves are divided into 5 leaflets, dumetorum into 3, the rest are singular. Trifida leaves are somewhat palmate, and other than the rounded leaflets of pentaphylla and dumetorum, the rest are heart-shaped (with varying ratios of length-breadth and varying degrees of rounded to angular corners). Bulbifera leaves tend to be broad, alata leaves a bit more narrow and often angular, and polystachya leaves narrow & heart lance-shaped.
Trifida, alata and hamiltonii stems have ridges/wings (which can be substituted by corresponding ridges of spines in some varieties of alata). Rotundata, cayennensis, esculenta, pentaphylla and dumetorum stems tend to be spined or prickly to varying degrees; the rest are smooth (though some species, like nummularia, can have prickles at the base). Bulbifera and nummularia have thick round stems in mature vines (bulbifera’s being fluted), polystachya has a square stem (thin, even at full maturity). Dumetorum is highly pubescent/fuzzy.
Bulbifera bulbils range from round to heart-shaped (like the organ) in Asian types, irregular & angular in African types, and can grow to a large size, though small ones are also produced. Polystachya and japonica bulbils can be round or oval, and are always small. Alata bulbils are ovoid to long & irregular (but not angular), and are small to medium sized. Pentaphylla bulbils are small to medium sized and ovoid to horseshoe shaped, and dumetorum bulbils (probably toxic) are spiny. I’m not sure how transversa bulbils are, but only some varieties produce them. The rest don’t usually produce bulbils. Bulbifera is a reliable producer of bulbils, whereas not all varieties of alata produce bulbils, and those that do aren’t usually as productive as bulbifera.
Those are the main distinctions, but there’s always variation among the species listed, never mind those that I didn’t get to list, which should have further differences.
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For more information on Dioscoreas, I’ll post the links to “Tropical Yams And Their Potential”, volumes 1-6:
Dioscorea esculenta - https://naldc-legacy.nal.usda.gov/naldc/download.xhtml?id=CAT87208469&content=PDF
Dioscorea bulbifera - https://naldc-legacy.nal.usda.gov/naldc/download.xhtml?id=CAT87208471&content=PDF
Dioscorea alata - https://naldc-legacy.nal.usda.gov/naldc/download.xhtml?id=CAT87208472&content=PDF
Dioscorea rotundata & cayennensis - https://naldc-legacy.nal.usda.gov/naldc/download.xhtml?id=CAT87209454&content=PDF
Dioscorea trifida - https://naldc-legacy.nal.usda.gov/naldc/download.xhtml?id=CAT87208470&content=PDF
Minor Cultivated Dioscoreas - https://naldc-legacy.nal.usda.gov/naldc/download.xhtml?id=CAT87209435&content=PDF
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And for the record, yep, everyone here stews them as well. They usually eat it with olive oil, and accompanied by “Jamón de Freír” or “Colén Guisao” (spicy anchovies, I think). I don’t roll like that… I like ‘em mashed and buttered! My favorite is D. rotundata, which makes a floury mash prior to adding butter. D. alata is much softer, almost watery post-stew, and makes a much smoother and less dense mash. I eat the air potatoes the same way, though they’re kinda intermediate between yams and actual potatoes in taste, and are best when freshly fallen/plucked.
I think edulis is synecious with indica. The ones I have grown ryzomes look like gangala ginger and grow wild and bendy around any obstruction.
I think what you have in mind is C. Musifolia Achira (Banana Canna) — Wanderlust Nursery I think its the species grown more specifically for start production and i think the rhizomes for more bulb like.
I haven’t looked too in-depth into this (if I have, I’ve forgotten), but I had understood the wild “indica” types to have thinner, gingery rhizomes, and that the crop type “edulis” had bigger, thicker, more tender rounded rhizomes. Most of my searches for “Queensland Arrowroot” and other crop-type Achiras turn up images like these (not mine; they’re kinda egg-like to me):
I dug up a feral Canna (¿indica?) in my grandmother’s yard and it had a thinner, gingery rhizome. I couldn’t eat it ‘cause the insides were blighted with something.
I may have harvested my current Canna before it was ready, I didn’t see either type of rhizome, just the rooted leaf-bases.
What do you think of the flavor of these two?
I haven’t tried the Hopniss yet, but the Chinese Yam is a mild, starchy flavor. Quite pleasant, and very much like potato.
