VEGETABLE SEEDS Aubergines Beans - French Beans - Runner Beetroot Broad Beans Broccoli & Rapini Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Carrots Celery Chilli Peppers Courgettes & Summer Squash Cucumbers, Gherkins & suchlike things Fennel Flowers Grains Herbs Kale Kohl Rabi Leaf Greens for Cooking Leeks Lettuces Melons & Watermelons Mustard Greens ( for cooking) Onions - spring sowing Onions - overwintering Onions - special types Oriental Greens for cooking & salads Parsnips Peas Pumpkins & Winter Squash Radishes (salad, & cooking types) Root Parsley NEW Salad Vegetables Sweet Corn Swedes Sweet Peppers Tomatoes : Bush Types Tomatoes : Vines - Cherries Tomatoes : Vines - Larger Tomatoes : Bulgarian Tomatoes : New Centiflor types Tomatilloes & Groundcherries Turnips Unusual Tubers: Oca & Yacon

RARE & UNUSUAL TUBERS: YACON & OCA

~ Firstly: "OCA" (Latin name: Oxalis Tuberosa) ~

This is a favourite of ours from South America. Oca is grown and used just like new potatoes, although they are smaller than potatoes. It has a lemony taste and is very easy to grow as long as you have a moderately long season. It is completely unrelated to potatoes and so of course not affected by blight.

One of the 'Lost Crops' of the Incas, this is one of the staples of people in Bolivia & Peru. A very easy crop to grow, with a taste just like potatoes with lemon sauce. No need to peel, just boil and serve with butter. Mmmmm.

And the lush green foliage with yellow flowers is actually rather pretty in its own right. Very few pests seem to like it, so its a real 'no work' crop.

The tubers start to form in short days, usually in mid November, so if you have early frosts this is not for you.
On the other hand, if the autumn is mild, as it has been this year, you should get a big crop of surprisingly large tubers. We got about 1/2 a kilo of Oca from each tuber planted.

We have grown it successfully for years: both in Cambridge and on the west coast of Wales, but we don't know how it would fare further north. It is very easy to multiply up - you just keep a few tubers back for replanting. So if you like it you don't need to buy it each year but just replant your own.

More details on storage and cooking included with your tubers. The oca has been incredibly popular - last year we grew loads but it all went really quickly. We keep planting more but can never keep up with demand.

To do it fairly we actually pack by weight and number:
we make sure that you get at least 6 tubers,
but we also check the bag is over a certain weight and put more in if needed.

So you'll definitely get 6 tubers (if they're big), or could get up to 9 (if they're small).

ALL OCA VARIETIES are AVAILABLE NOW
When they're gone they're gone!

Yellow From Orange
This strain was selected by us from the orange oca (OcOR) in 2006 when we spotted one tuber in the harvest with a small yellow patch on its skin.

Luckily there was an ‘eye’ in that patch - we let it sprout, and rooted it to establish this beautiful new strain of yellow oca that has the high productivity of the parent orange variety.

It is very pretty with red lines around each eye, against a pale yellow background, this is probably the best-looking one we have.

Brand-new variety selected by us - very limited stocks this year. Limited to 1 packet per person.

Order OCYO- >60 grams, at least six little seed tubers £9.40

Cath Hillmans New Zealand Red (with black eyes)

There's an interesting story in this - in the 1970's and 1980's the NZ goverment decided to research unusual plants that would grow there and could be high-value export crops.

They did find and breed several things with varying success- you will probably know the Kiwi Fruit which was good, but also the (disgusting) Kiwano Horned Melon, which is not even fit for pig food (but it looks cool so everyone buys them once).

However, few people outside NZ know they also had a government-funded oca research programme. Like us, they tried to breed new varieties from seed (oca seed is very rare). It was quite sucessful, and although not exported (we don't know why) oca are commonly sold in supermarkets in NZ, though they are just called 'Yams' by the New Zealanders.

Back to our story, Cath liked them very much, so when she found herself living in the UK she missed having them to eat. She eventually got hold of some from a NZ supermarket and grew them in Surrey, where they did just fine. And she later sent us some of hers to swap for our others; they did well for us and we have been bulking them up ever since.

Scarlet Oca with White Eyes
A deep red strain that we have had for years and years, it makes beautiful tubers with pure white outlines over the eyes, and is one of our mainstays - it just gets on with it each year, and we don't worry about it ever.

It is very slightly more cold resistant than the others, we harvest it a few weeks later than the orange.

This one has also been selected for production of large tubers and like all oca, is resistant to pretty much everything. Shown here about actual size.

Order OCSW- > 60 grams, at least six little seed tubers £8.30

White from Red
This strain was selected by us from the "Scarlet with White Eyes" in 2007 when we spotted one tuber in the harvest with a small white patch on its skin.

There were two ‘eyes’ in that patch - we let them sprout, to get a new white oca that has the disease resistance and short fat tubers of the scarlet variety.

We are now selecting this strain further to get pale lemon-coloured tubers and should have that available in 2014, for now you will see some tubers whiter than others.

Order OCWR- > 60 grams, at least six little seed tubers £8.30

Dylan Keatings Brother
This interesting oca was sent to us in 2007 by Dylan Keating, who we think got them originally from his brother in Peru. We received two and a half (!) tiny shrivelled tubers from Cornwall, and have slowly been building up our stocks ever since - now after 5 years, we finally have enough to offer some to you.

It is a very nice colour, and a different shape to our other oca varieties - fatter and more egg-like.

It makes fewer tubers per plant than the ones we are used to, but there is a higher proportion of much bigger ones, so the overall yield is still good, and of course there's less digging and washing to do with bigger tubers.

We think this will be a real success in the UK and are pleased to offer a few packets this year. If we run out, don't worry, we'll have lots more in 2012 and 2013.

Brand-new variety - very limited stocks this year. Limited to 1 packet per person.

Order OCDK- > 60 grams, at least six little seed tubers £9.40

Helen's All Red Oca
This is a darker red Oca variety that was given to us in 2004 by a woman called Helen. It is dark red all over - no white bits - and usually does really quite well for us. It had been grown for several years in Wales before we got it.

For a while we thought we had lost this one but we did find a few tubers two years back and now have grown out some for you to try - just a few packets available this year!

We have however kept back lots for replanting so there will be more in 2013 if you miss this lot.

Order OCHM- > 60 grams, at least six little seed tubers £8.30

Like all oca, they are absolutely delicious par-boiled then roasted.

Orinigally just 8 baby tubers were sent to us by Frank Kiersbilck in Belgium, who we think got them from a collector in Ireland.

From that we've multiplied them up to the point where we have a couple hundred packets available. We've had a great harvest of these from our 'eating' garden too, and they will see us through the winter once the potatoes run out.

Order OCWH- > 60 grams, at least six little seed tubers £8.30

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Orange Oca with Red Eyes

Interestingly, with this variety, the shade of orange varies each year, we think that colder weather makes them come out darker.
PLEASE NOTE that many of this years tubers are a MUCH darker orange than in the photo, almost a red colour.

Order OCOR- >60 grams, at least six little seed tubers £8.30

We'll include at least 4 different types in the mixed pack, and these tend to be smaller tubers simply so that we can include more colours in the weight of a packet.

Many people write to ask what varieties they'll get, but we really can't say, it depends on what we have to hand. It is however likely to include at least some orange (OcOR) and Scarlet & White (OcSW) because we have so much of them. We also tend to put in the odd tuber of any other varieties that we don't have enough of to pack on their own, such as Red Mexican and Unknown Rose.

For example, a recent lot packed up had OCOR, OCSW, OCYO, OCWR, Red Mexican and OCHM in it, one or two quite small tubers of each. But from these small tubers you should be able to bulk up a quite decent number of plants in a couple of growing seasons.

All the mixed bags packed at a particular time have the same mix of tubers in them, so for those of you who asked, if you bought 2 bags you wouldn't get any extra varieties, you'd get two lots the same.

Order OCOR- 70 grams, at least six little seed tubers £12.80

ONLY SOMETIMES AVAILABLE - If you can add it to your basket, you can order it. Otherwise we haven't got any.

Andy's Cinnamon Vine

This is another nice unusal edible plant, but to be honest is probably best grown more for amusement rather than as a staple part of your diet.

The plants make 2 types of tuber - a huge underground one that is impossible to dig up, and small 'air-tubers' attached to the stem at the base of each leaf. It requires very little maintenance - the top growth dies back in winter but then resprouts in spring.

They also have hundreds of small white flowers, which give off an intense cinnamon scent, fantastic in your polytunnel.

Sow the bulbils into a well manured weed free site, somewhere you can give them a support to climb. Be patient - bulbils may take some time to sprout in their first year.

Plants take 3-4 years to reach full maturity - the big edible root can then be up to 3 foot long, going straight down vertically. Digging it up is an interesting challenge - let us know if you find a good solution! (Some people have suggested hiring a JCB digger and they might have a point)

The plants produce baby tubers in the leaf axils, and these can be used to produce new plants. COOKING: cook and eat any way that you would potato.

Not very hardy overwinter. Can try outside in the South East of the UK , probably only for growing in a polytunnel in the rest of the country.
Sent to us by Andy Polkey.

Order TuAC - six little aerial tubers, about the size of a small marble, £6.50