YACON AND YACKIN' ON

The other day I found another blog that I think is very nice and the first post I read was about the harvesting of yacon. It is a very timely thing because I have been wondering about that myself. Read about yacon there. And check out the rest of the blog too.

Funnily enough I have been meaning to say something about yacon for about a week and keep forgetting. So here it is : if you have never felt the young leaves of yacon and you have it in your garden, now, this very minute is the time to do it. People usually grow vegetables to eat them and herbs to eat or make into teas or lotions and potions but there are some more, rather subtle ways of enjoying some of these plants.

Of course some have glorious scents and some have surprisingly awful scents, and the colours can just make you gasp but I am a kind of touchy feely kind of person and I like to run my fingers over things, especially all the parts of plants. Things are not always what they appear to be in the plant kingdom, I have discovered. Yacon is one such case. The leaves get quite large and they just feel like....leaves! But the new growth, which looks exactly the same, is indescribably beautiful to touch. Every day now I go and feel those leaves because I can't believe how gorgeously ......indescribable they are!

My 3 favourite scents are the blossom of the lemon tree and that of the deciduous....oh no, such a nice name it has and I can't quite remember it but I will in a minute....yes, it is Philadelphus (or mock orange but it is nothing like orange blossom scent!) and also the Acacia iteaphylla (Flinders Ranges Wattle).

My favourite vegetables for their brilliant colours are those amazing red and yellow capsicums and purple stripey eggplants that I photographed during summer. But for me the one plant I grow especially for its colour and form is that lime-green chicory with the curled central leaves, from a couple of posts ago. A whole bed of that would be breath-taking. The leaves are rarely eaten by anything and grow large and soft and gorgeous.

Also I am delighted and amused by the crimson okra plants with their oak-like leaves, soft creamy hibiscus flowers and deep crimson pods pointing firmly upwards, when you'd think they would hang down!

There are many, many wonderful things about growing food and I think vegetable gardens and fruit trees should be more appreciated for the beauty that can be found in them....

I have written a lovely post about gardening at Sally's on Wednesday but now Live Writer won't let me publish it! Grrrr...