Edibility of ornamental Ipomoea batatas?
I received this query today and don't have any info. Can anyone offer
an answer or personal experience? "are the tubers of marguarita & blackie ornamental ipomoea batatas edible? we have been told they are called white sweet potatoes & can be prepared the same as regular orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. i've been unable to find information relating to edibility on several websites." All I have been able to find is a "No" at this informal website: http://www.emilycompost.com/morning_glory.htm Thanks, Monique Reed |
The following university site quotes Ball Seed which says tuberous
roots of ornamental sweet potato are edible. It seems logical that they would be because the mutation was in leaf coloration. A lot of websites say they form tubers but they are actually tuberous roots. Even the website below confuses sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) with potato (Solanum tuberosum). They are in different families. Ipomoea is in Convolvulaceae and Solanum is in Solanaceae. Production Guidelines for Four New Crops -- Osteospermum, Angelonia, Calibrachoa & Ornamental Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas) http://www.umass.edu/umext/floricult.../newcrops.html This site below quotes the USDA's Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina which says "‘Marguerite' seldom produces a "usable" edible root and ‘Blackie' almost never does. If, by chance, such a root is produced, there is no reason it could not be eaten." http://www.mygardenguide.com/faq.html David R. Hershey Monique Reed wrote in message ... I received this query today and don't have any info. Can anyone offer an answer or personal experience? "are the tubers of marguarita & blackie ornamental ipomoea batatas edible? we have been told they are called white sweet potatoes & can be prepared the same as regular orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. i've been unable to find information relating to edibility on several websites." All I have been able to find is a "No" at this informal website: http://www.emilycompost.com/morning_glory.htm Thanks, Monique Reed |
A lot of websites say they form tubers but they are actually tuberous roots.
I never noticed the difference until someone here mentioned it. Sweet potatoes and other tuberous roots look like tubers, but if you look carefully at the eyes, they only sprout little feeder roots. Only a true tuber has eyes which produce leaf buds. Iris, Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40 "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra |
In article ,
Monique Reed wrote: I received this query today and don't have any info. Can anyone offer an answer or personal experience? I think you've gotten a good answer regarding edibility. White sweet potatoes seem to be the most popular kinds in Korea and Japan. The Korean greengrocers here all stock them and no other kinds. The ones I see all have red skin. I find them dry and bland tasting, much inferior to the usual moist orange or yellow fleshed kind, but perhaps in Korean and Japanese cuisine they are prepared in a way that takes advantage of the difference in culinary properties. |
In article ,
Iris Cohen wrote: A lot of websites say they form tubers but they are actually tuberous roots. I never noticed the difference until someone here mentioned it. Sweet potatoes and other tuberous roots look like tubers, but if you look carefully at the eyes, they only sprout little feeder roots. Only a true tuber has eyes which produce leaf buds. AFAIK, they are tuberous roots, but they do produce shoots and leaves as well as roots. They are propagated by breaking off these young plants (slips) from the tuberous root and planting them. You get many slips from one sweet potato. It's been a long long time since I sprouted a sweet potato in water as a houseplant -- I don't think kids do this any more because commercial ones are now treated with a sprouting inhibitor. I suppose I could seek out some organically grown ones. I don't remember just where the roots and shoots sprout from -- if not from eyes, where? |
I don't remember just where the roots
and shoots sprout from -- if not from eyes, where? On a true tuber, leafy shoots spring from the eyes all over. On a tuberous root, the leafy shoot would only come from the top, where it was joined to the stem. Try it & tell me if that is correct. All I know about these things is what happens in the refrigerator. White potatoes sprout from the eyes; sweet potatoes eventually rot. Iris, Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40 "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra |
On a sweet potato, there are little bumps, dimples, and folds, but no true
"eyes" in the sense of an axillary bud. Shoots appear more or less at random on the surface, produced adventitiously. |
Shoots appear more or less at random
on the surface, produced adventitiously. Is there anything I can use to encourage the formation of shoots on a fleshy root, such as elm, Ficus, or Crataegus? I need to make some root cuttings from my hawthorn tree, as it doesn't root from branch cuttings. And the usual tonics, like Superthrive, are to encourage root growth. Iris, Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40 "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra |
In sweet potato tuberous roots or storage roots, the shoots sprout
from adventitious buds. http://www.cipotato.org/training/Mat...tato%201-1.htm In potato tubers, the buds are not adventitious because the tuber is a modified stem with buds or "eyes" at each node. Sweet potato tuberous roots have no nodes. http://trc.ucdavis.edu/egsutter/plb1...71VMTubers.htm http://trc.ucdavis.edu/egsutter/plb1...uber-Roots.htm David R. Hershey wrote in message . .. It's been a long long time since I sprouted a sweet potato in water as a houseplant -- I don't think kids do this any more because commercial ones are now treated with a sprouting inhibitor. I suppose I could seek out some organically grown ones. I don't remember just where the roots and shoots sprout from -- if not from eyes, where? |
"Phred" wrote in message
... In article , wrote: In article , Monique Reed wrote: I received this query today and don't have any info. Can anyone offer an answer or personal experience? I think you've gotten a good answer regarding edibility. White sweet potatoes seem to be the most popular kinds in Korea and Japan. The Korean greengrocers here all stock them and no other kinds. The ones I see all have red skin. I find them dry and bland tasting, much inferior to the usual moist orange or yellow fleshed kind, but perhaps in Korean and Japanese cuisine they are prepared in a way that takes advantage of the difference in culinary properties. piggy-backing, but those sweet potatoes are most often used for tempura, roasting, or candy-ing (such as the recipes at http://japanesefood.about.com/od/swe...daigakuimo.htm in Japan. Sometimes I see sweet potato bread or croissants (with the sweet potato used as a filling), but the former three are the most common recipes, I believe. -- ***For e-mail, replace .com with .ca Sorry for the inconvenience!*** "[America] is filled with people who decided not to live in Europe. We had people who really wanted to live in Europe, but didn't have the energy to go back. We call them Canadians." ---Grover Norquist in Newsweek, November 22, 2004 |
There is also a yam which grows in the southern Mexico wooded areas that is
edible but rather than Ipomea it is related to the Dioscorea group (spelling?) and also has weak birth control properties. (I think diosgenin is extracted from it, A preproduct of birth control medications. ) Chuck "Rona Yuthasastrakosol" wrote in message ... "Phred" wrote in message ... In article , wrote: In article , Monique Reed wrote: I received this query today and don't have any info. Can anyone offer an answer or personal experience? I think you've gotten a good answer regarding edibility. White sweet potatoes seem to be the most popular kinds in Korea and Japan. The Korean greengrocers here all stock them and no other kinds. The ones I see all have red skin. I find them dry and bland tasting, much inferior to the usual moist orange or yellow fleshed kind, but perhaps in Korean and Japanese cuisine they are prepared in a way that takes advantage of the difference in culinary properties. piggy-backing, but those sweet potatoes are most often used for tempura, roasting, or candy-ing (such as the recipes at http://japanesefood.about.com/od/swe...daigakuimo.htm in Japan. Sometimes I see sweet potato bread or croissants (with the sweet potato used as a filling), but the former three are the most common recipes, I believe. -- ***For e-mail, replace .com with .ca Sorry for the inconvenience!*** "[America] is filled with people who decided not to live in Europe. We had people who really wanted to live in Europe, but didn't have the energy to go back. We call them Canadians." ---Grover Norquist in Newsweek, November 22, 2004 |
In article , "Chuck" wrote:
There is also a yam which grows in the southern Mexico wooded areas that is edible but rather than Ipomea it is related to the Dioscorea group (spelling?) and also has weak birth control properties. (I think diosgenin is extracted from it, A preproduct of birth control medications. ) My purple yam is shooting again -- in fact it had 50 new shoots spread over several metres at last count. The root "tubers" are edible, but the purple colour is a bit of a worry and I would never had tried the things if I hadn't been told by reliable sources that I could eat it. It also has aerial tubers (bulbils?) which will grow if planted, but I don't know if they are edible (some of these things aren't). Frankly, I reckon yams are over-rated and I probably wouldn't eat them by choice beyond curiosity. One of the local supermarkets has recently been flogging another type of yam and, judging by how clean the things are, I suspect they might actually be edible aerial tubers in this case. Pale buff skin and pure white flesh with even a suggestion of translucence. The texture is light and crisp -- rather "refreshing" eaten raw, but bugger all flavour. (Rather like the tubers of _Pachyrhizus tuberosa_ in fact.) Cheers, Phred. -- LID |
In article ,
Phred wrote: In article , wrote: White sweet potatoes seem to be the most popular kinds in Korea and Japan. The Korean greengrocers here all stock them and no other kinds. The ones I see all have red skin. I find them dry and bland tasting, much inferior to the usual moist orange or yellow fleshed kind, but perhaps in Korean and Japanese cuisine they are prepared in a way that takes advantage of the difference in culinary properties. The sweet bucks of my childhood (grown by my uncle and cooked with the roast chook for that special Sunday dinner -- at midday, in the tropics, for crissake! ) had a slightly greenish tinge internally when cooked and a very slightly "stringy" texture (more visual than physical). I don't remember their skin colour, but they were *delicious* with a crisp outer shell from the oven roasting. :-) Interesting. IIRC, white sweet potatoes are sometimes recommended as a substitute for "real" potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) in climates too hot to grow the latter. They are a bit similar -- dry and starchy. I've got a patch of the orange fleshed kind in the backyard here; but I admit they're basically just going wild (and doing it very tough due to high temperatures and no rain) and I rarely think to harvest some for a feed. They are very nutritious -- extremely high in carotenes. I cook them whole in a covered container in the microwave and eat them hot or cold with salt and pepper. The very moist kind, with "melting" texture, are especially good this way. I'm told by a bloke who was breeding them here that the very sweet, orange types are often used as a sweet (e.g. in desserts) in other parts of the world; but it's not a common way of using them here in Oz AFAIK. They are sometimes "candied", i.e. peeled, cut into chunks and baked in a way that coats them with a sugary glaze, in the southern US. They can also be used to make sweet potato pies, by substituting mashed sweet potato for pumpkin or squash in a pumpkin pie recipe. (A little more ethnobotany for non-North Americans: a pumpkin pie is made by baking a mix of pureed squash (Cucurbita moschata or C.maxima is generally better for this than C.pepo), milk, eggs, molasses and spices like cinnamon and ginger with only a lower crust. For a healthier version, cut back on the eggs, use low fat milk and skip the crust entirely. By not using a crust, you not only avoid loads of fat but you can "bake" it in the microwave. Pumpkin pies are often served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but you can certainly skip that as well.) |
If someone is offering something for sale called a yam, be sure it is Dioscorea
batatas. There are some varieties of Ipomoea batatas, the sweet potato, which are sold as yams. Both species are edible, but they probably taste different. Your so-called purple yam is probably a sweet potato. Be assured it is edible. The purple color is simply anthocyanin, like the color in purple cabbage. It will probably dissolve in the water or turn color if you cook it. In this country there is a big, sweet, orange-fleshed sweet potato which is often sold as a yam. Iris, Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40 "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra |
In article , wrote:
In article , Phred wrote: In article , wrote: White sweet potatoes seem to be the most popular kinds in Korea and Japan. The Korean greengrocers here all stock them and no other kinds. The ones I see all have red skin. I find them dry and bland tasting, much inferior to the usual moist orange or yellow fleshed kind, but perhaps in Korean and Japanese cuisine they are prepared in a way that takes advantage of the difference in culinary properties. The sweet bucks of my childhood (grown by my uncle and cooked with the roast chook for that special Sunday dinner -- at midday, in the tropics, for crissake! ) had a slightly greenish tinge internally when cooked and a very slightly "stringy" texture (more visual than physical). I don't remember their skin colour, but they were *delicious* with a crisp outer shell from the oven roasting. :-) Interesting. IIRC, white sweet potatoes are sometimes recommended as a substitute for "real" potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) in climates too hot to grow the latter. They are a bit similar -- dry and starchy. I've got a patch of the orange fleshed kind in the backyard here; but I admit they're basically just going wild (and doing it very tough due to high temperatures and no rain) and I rarely think to harvest some for a feed. They are very nutritious -- extremely high in carotenes. I cook them whole in a covered container in the microwave and eat them hot or cold with salt and pepper. The very moist kind, with "melting" texture, are especially good this way. When you say "whole", do you mean unpeeled, or just uncut? Roughly what size do you use, and how long to cook? (As you can see, you've got me thinking about a harvest. ;-) I'm told by a bloke who was breeding them here that the very sweet, orange types are often used as a sweet (e.g. in desserts) in other parts of the world; but it's not a common way of using them here in Oz AFAIK. They are sometimes "candied", i.e. peeled, cut into chunks and baked in a way that coats them with a sugary glaze, in the southern US. They can also be used to make sweet potato pies, by substituting mashed sweet potato for pumpkin or squash in a pumpkin pie recipe. (A little more ethnobotany for non-North Americans: a pumpkin pie is made by baking a mix of pureed squash (Cucurbita moschata or C.maxima is generally better for this than C.pepo), milk, eggs, molasses and spices like cinnamon and ginger with only a lower crust. For a I have to admit, I'd never have thought of molasses in that. healthier version, cut back on the eggs, use low fat milk and skip the crust entirely. By not using a crust, you not only avoid loads of fat but you can "bake" it in the microwave. Pumpkin pies are often served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but you can certainly skip that as well.) Wot? I would have thought the pie would just be a convenient base for those edibles! :) Cheers, Phred. -- LID |
FORGOT TO MENTION. ive had sweet potatoes sliced as thin julienne's then
deep fried and powdered lightly with powdered sugar, Served on holidays they are delicious. A Vietnamese treat I enjoy. Chuck "Phred" wrote in message ... In article , wrote: In article , Phred wrote: In article , wrote: White sweet potatoes seem to be the most popular kinds in Korea and Japan. The Korean greengrocers here all stock them and no other kinds. The ones I see all have red skin. I find them dry and bland tasting, much inferior to the usual moist orange or yellow fleshed kind, but perhaps in Korean and Japanese cuisine they are prepared in a way that takes advantage of the difference in culinary properties. The sweet bucks of my childhood (grown by my uncle and cooked with the roast chook for that special Sunday dinner -- at midday, in the tropics, for crissake! ) had a slightly greenish tinge internally when cooked and a very slightly "stringy" texture (more visual than physical). I don't remember their skin colour, but they were *delicious* with a crisp outer shell from the oven roasting. :-) Interesting. IIRC, white sweet potatoes are sometimes recommended as a substitute for "real" potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) in climates too hot to grow the latter. They are a bit similar -- dry and starchy. I've got a patch of the orange fleshed kind in the backyard here; but I admit they're basically just going wild (and doing it very tough due to high temperatures and no rain) and I rarely think to harvest some for a feed. They are very nutritious -- extremely high in carotenes. I cook them whole in a covered container in the microwave and eat them hot or cold with salt and pepper. The very moist kind, with "melting" texture, are especially good this way. When you say "whole", do you mean unpeeled, or just uncut? Roughly what size do you use, and how long to cook? (As you can see, you've got me thinking about a harvest. ;-) I'm told by a bloke who was breeding them here that the very sweet, orange types are often used as a sweet (e.g. in desserts) in other parts of the world; but it's not a common way of using them here in Oz AFAIK. They are sometimes "candied", i.e. peeled, cut into chunks and baked in a way that coats them with a sugary glaze, in the southern US. They can also be used to make sweet potato pies, by substituting mashed sweet potato for pumpkin or squash in a pumpkin pie recipe. (A little more ethnobotany for non-North Americans: a pumpkin pie is made by baking a mix of pureed squash (Cucurbita moschata or C.maxima is generally better for this than C.pepo), milk, eggs, molasses and spices like cinnamon and ginger with only a lower crust. For a I have to admit, I'd never have thought of molasses in that. healthier version, cut back on the eggs, use low fat milk and skip the crust entirely. By not using a crust, you not only avoid loads of fat but you can "bake" it in the microwave. Pumpkin pies are often served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but you can certainly skip that as well.) Wot? I would have thought the pie would just be a convenient base for those edibles! :) Cheers, Phred. -- LID |
In article , (Iris Cohen) wrote:
If someone is offering something for sale called a yam, be sure it is Dioscorea batatas. There are some varieties of Ipomoea batatas, the sweet potato, which are sold as yams. Both species are edible, but they probably taste different. Your so-called purple yam is probably a sweet potato. Be assured it is edible. The purple color is simply anthocyanin, like the color in purple cabbage. It will probably dissolve in the water or turn color if you cook it. In this country there is a big, sweet, orange-fleshed sweet potato which is often sold as a yam. Thanks for your response, Iris. Yeah, my yam is certainly _Dioscorea_ sp. I presume _D. batatas_, but I haven't really checked it out seriously, and web pages seem to be up to their usual conflicting advice. :-) For example, for this species we find: From: http://www.bihrmann.com/caudiciforms/subs/dio-bat-sub.asp It [_D. batatas_] can stand frost down to -18 C. From: http://www.clematis.com.pl/wms/wmsg.php/321.html&plant_number=165 It’s not fully hardy, hence before winter it’s advisable to cover an area of about 100cm in diameter around the plant with e.g. bark mulch thus creating an isolation layer that will help protect the roots. From: http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/acc_num/198700196.html USDA Zone: 5 Mind you, this conflict could be my problem, not reality! 8-) To a tropical lad, -18C is *bloody* cold for horticulture, so that "not fully hardy" in the second ref sounds like a bunch of codswallops! (And, come to that, I don't know what "USDA Zone 5" means in that .edu ref. Presumably it confirms or refutes one of the others, if not both? :) [ Later: Hmm... Okay. Before Celluloid had a coronary over my laissez faire I thought I'd better do a google... It seems those refs may be pretty consistent after all. USDA Zone 5 (5a and 5b) are *very* bloody cold for tropical lads! http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hzm-ne1.html So what the hell do you call "fully hardy"? Sounds like hell has already frozen over to me. :-) ] Cheers, Phred. -- LID |
In article , "Chuck" wrote:
FORGOT TO MENTION. ive had sweet potatoes sliced as thin julienne's then deep fried and powdered lightly with powdered sugar, Served on holidays they are delicious. A Vietnamese treat I enjoy. Yeah. The breeder I mentioned earlier has occasionally done similar things with his lines of orange sweet bucks for the benefit of his deserving colleagues. In that case, they were presented as "chips" analogous to potato chips (the "thin slice" supermarket style) with salt and/or other seasoning, not with sugar. Went down very well with cold beer on a hot day. :-) Cheers, Phred. -- LID |
can stand frost down to -18 C.
That's 0 in Fahrenheit. Pretty cold. We would consider that USDA Zone 7, so you are getting conflicting information. Zone 5 means an average minimum winter temperature of -10 to -20 F, or about -23 to -28 C. So what the hell do you call "fully hardy"? That means neither the top nor the roots will die during an average winter in that zone. I think what your references mean is that the yam is fully hardy in Zone 7, but in Zone 5, the top will die over the winter, and the roots will survive with a little added protection. In Temperate zones, it often helps to find out where the frost line is. Here in Zone 5 in Central NY, the average frost depth is about 36 inches (I think), but it can vary depending on your soil type. Iris, Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40 "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra |
Cucurbita moschata or C.maxima is generally better for this than C.pepo
What is the difference? Which is the big round orange thing usually called a pumpkin?. Isn't that what they sell in a can? Iris, Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40 "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra |
When you say "whole", do you mean unpeeled, or just uncut?
Roughly what size do you use, and how long to cook? (As you can see, you've got me thinking about a harvest. Sweet potatoes may be cooked whole with the skins on, which is how they are cooked in the microwave. The skin is edible & probably good for you. However, when you microwave them whole, you have to stab them to the center to keep them from exploding. Size doesn't matter, except it is easier to cook several nearly the same size. Length of time depends on your microwave. Look at the instructions. I'd never have thought of molasses in that. Neither did I. Standard recipe calls for plain sugar or brown sugar. Iris, Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40 "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra |
Thanks for your responses, Iris.
I find the thought of frost to 36" more than a little frightening! Around here, a bad frost kills things to ground level; less severe ones just scorch the canopy. We're pretty much at the limit of frost incidence in NE Oz and probably wouldn't get any at all except for being on a low tableland. I recall being in St Paul/Minneapolis in ... April? ... many years ago, and thought I'd found the perfect climate -- until my host pointed out there had been about 5 feet of snow in the Uni staff car park not many weeks earlier. I was chilled just thinking about it! In article , (Iris Cohen) wrote: can stand frost down to -18 C. That's 0 in Fahrenheit. Pretty cold. We would consider that USDA Zone 7, so you are getting conflicting information. Zone 5 means an average minimum winter temperature of -10 to -20 F, or about -23 to -28 C. So what the hell do you call "fully hardy"? That means neither the top nor the roots will die during an average winter in that zone. I think what your references mean is that the yam is fully hardy in Zone 7, but in Zone 5, the top will die over the winter, and the roots will survive with a little added protection. In Temperate zones, it often helps to find out where the frost line is. Here in Zone 5 in Central NY, the average frost depth is about 36 inches (I think), but it can vary depending on your soil type. Cheers, Phred. -- LID |
In article ,
Phred wrote: In article , wrote: I've got a patch of the orange fleshed kind in the backyard here; but I admit they're basically just going wild (and doing it very tough due to high temperatures and no rain) and I rarely think to harvest some for a feed. They are very nutritious -- extremely high in carotenes. I cook them whole in a covered container in the microwave and eat them hot or cold with salt and pepper. The very moist kind, with "melting" texture, are especially good this way. When you say "whole", do you mean unpeeled, or just uncut? Roughly what size do you use, and how long to cook? (As you can see, you've got me thinking about a harvest. ;-) Life is too short to spend it peeling vegetables. You can scoop the flesh out of the skin when you eat them, or just go ahead and eat the skin. Fibre is *good* for you, it's not just laziness, right? ;-) Unfortunately only the most fervent and dedicated can grow sweet potatoes in Ontario, except for a few favored locations, so I have to buy them. I try to get them less than 8cm or so diameter so they'll cook faster, but size doesn't really matter, as long as it's fairly uniform. How long? Hm. 10 minutes on high and then check them and give them another 5 or 10 minutes if they are still hard in the center? Something like that. IIRC, in this climate it's necessary to mature the dug roots by keeping them warm (over 80F - 27C) for a few weeks, or they won't develop full flavour or keep well, but this may be only because the soil is pretty cold by the time they are dug. It may not be necessary in a more appropriate climate. (A little more ethnobotany for non-North Americans: a pumpkin pie is made by baking a mix of pureed squash (Cucurbita moschata or C.maxima is generally better for this than C.pepo), milk, eggs, molasses and spices like cinnamon and ginger with only a lower crust. For a I have to admit, I'd never have thought of molasses in that. Pumpkin pie is really quite a different food than squash cooked as a vegetable. Look up some recipes and try it some time, with either squash or sweet potato. A good source of recipes for *anything* is www.cooks.com. Note that in the US, sweet potatoes are often called yams. Using molasses with squash probably goes back to the use of maple syrup or maple sugar by the North American native people who grew squash and beans long before European contact. A lot of "traditional American" recipes are derived from native foods, with molasses substituted for maple sugar and pork fat substituted for bear fat, e.g. Boston baked beans. Ditto for many uses of maize. Molasses became a staple in the northeastern US when it was one of the main trade items in the commercial circuit that moved manufactured goods from England, slaves from Africa, sugar, molasses and rum from the West Indies and dried codfish and lumber from New England and eastern Canada around the North Atlantic. |
In article ,
Iris Cohen wrote: Cucurbita moschata or C.maxima is generally better for this than C.pepo What is the difference? Which is the big round orange thing usually called a pumpkin?. Isn't that what they sell in a can? There are four domesticated species of Cucurbita grown in North America and at least three of them have cultivars that produce fruits that look like the traditional pumpkin, and are called pumpkins here. The other cultivars produce fruits that are called squash in this part of the world, but in some others, e.g. Jamaica, all Cucurbita fruits are called pumpkins. None of the four species cross, but the Japanese have some sterile hybrids of C.moschata and C.maxima. I tried making this cross and got fruits full of empty seeds, but I often get a lot of empty seeds anyway in normal fruits, probably because my season is so short. There are clear botanical differences which are easy to see once you know what to look for. I used to have a list of them with proper technical terminology, but I'll try to wing it here. If someone can point me to better descriptions, I'd appreciate it. C.mixta -- I don't know much about this one since it doesn't grow in this climate, and doesn't appear to be in international commerce. Cultivars are sometimes called cushaws or cushaw pumpkins. C.moschata -- The most common cultivar is the butternut squash, but there are others, including some of the "cheese pumpkins" named for their shape, resembling a large wheel of cheese. There are some Japanese cultivars with other sizes and shapes. IIRC, commercial canned pumpkin is made from a large pumpkin-shaped cultivar of this species. The leaves are relatively small and somewhat fuzzy. The seeds are small and have a thin shell. The stems and petioles are hard and very resistant to squash vine borer. The flesh is orange. C.maxima -- Most of the large squashes are in this species, e.g. hubbards and hubbard types, as well as buttercups, Turk's turban, banana squashes, and both big pumpkins and huge ones like the Hungarian and Atlantic Giants. They have bigger leaves and spongy porous hollow stems that are very attractive to squash vine borers. The seeds are large and have a thick but not hard white shell. The flesh is usually dark orange and has a "melting" (i.e. moist and not stringy) character although some Japanese cultivars have a drier, flaky sort of flesh. C.pepo -- Most summer squashes, e.g. zucchini, pattypans and crooknecks are in this species, as are acorn (aka pepper) squashes, vegetable spaghetti, delicata squash and many of the small ornamental gourds and mini pumpkins. Some have persistent silver markings on the leaves. This is the only species, AFAIK, that has the trait for a real "bush" habit, i.e. extremely short internodes, although most cultivars other than summer squash don't have it, and there are so-called bush varieties of the other species that are just short vined rather than short in the internodes. The flesh is usually relatively pale, yellow rather than orange and the seeds are small and hard shelled. You can distinguish the species in the supermarket by examining the peduncle where it attaches to the fruit. Unfortunately, I can't describe this correctly, although I can see it. If you compare this area in fruits that you know the species of, e.g. a butternut, a buttercup and an acorn squash, you'll see what I mean. Resistance to squash vine borer is very important to me since it's a major pest here. While it's not as much a problem with zucchini (C.pepo) as with C.maxima, I was delighted to find a C.moschata cultivar, Tromboncino Rampicante. which makes a good zucchini substitute immature, but is kind of stringy as a winter squash. I gave some to my neighbours, and it seems to have crossed with normal butternuts, and they now grow these monster meter-and-longer tubular butternut looking squash. I don't know what they do with them, but I see them in back yards at some distance from mine. Before I close this excessively long essay about one of the plants I most enjoy growing, I'd like to ask my world-wide audience whether they've ever seen a butternut squash with a netted green pattern overlaying the usual tan color. I bought one at a supermarket last winter and grew it out this year. It seems to be reasonably early, productive and healthy in my climate, and I wonder where it came from. The bin at the store had other squashes labelled as coming from Nicaragua and New Zealand, so this squash could have come from very far away. Since I participate in seed exchanges, I'd like to acquire more information if available. (Btw, squashes cross (within species) very promiscuously and over considerable distance, so if you want to save seed, you pretty much have to hand pollinate, which means getting up before the bees and taping closed the flowers that are about to open that day and waiting until about 10am to perform the cross. You also have to contend with bumblebees that will chew their way into your taped flowers. In my climate, at least, cucurbits set a lot more fruit than the plant is willing to grow to maturity, so you may have to do a lot of crosses to get even a few fruits with good seeds. Squash aren't as bad as melons this way, but if you have a short season, do the crosses as early as possible, so you'll have plenty of chances. The latest set fruit are most likely to abort, IME. Paradoxically, the squash you buy in the supermarket probably come from the middle of large fields of the same cultivar, so you are pretty sure to get trueness to type from a squash you buy. Except for some of the pepo squashes, e.g. acorn crossed with zucchini or ornamental gourds, you'll likely get something as edible as its seed parent, so go for it. Be adventurous. Enjoy genetic diversity and grow funny looking vegetables!) |
In article ,
Phred wrote: One of the local supermarkets has recently been flogging another type of yam and, judging by how clean the things are, I suspect they might actually be edible aerial tubers in this case. Pale buff skin and pure white flesh with even a suggestion of translucence. The texture is light and crisp -- rather "refreshing" eaten raw, but bugger all flavour. (Rather like the tubers of _Pachyrhizus tuberosa_ in fact.) Could be jicama, P. erosus, which is in the Fabaceae, or maybe P.erosus is really P.tuberosus, with the error propagated around the web. At any rate it's a popular vegetable in Mexico and adjacent parts of the US and answers this description, especially if it's sort of vertically flattened. Recently it's become popular as a salad ingredient in California new cuisine, so the yuppies are creating a demand for it, and it's in all the supermarkets here. There seem to be a lot of Dioscorea yam cultivars. I don't know if they are all D.batatas. There are a lot of people in Toronto from the West Indies and Central America, and the supermarkets carry yams of many types and colors. All the ones I've seem have been sort of rough and shaggy, not smooth as you describe. There are probably culinary differences since stores normally carry several kinds if they carry any. |
I find the thought of frost to 36" more than a little frightening!
One gets used to it. Remember up in Zones 1 &2 they have Permafrost. That is why conservationists are so opposed to drilling for oil in the Arctic. The permanently frozen ground ecology is extremely fragile. I recall being in St Paul/Minneapolis in ... April? ... many years ago, and thought I'd found the perfect climate -- until my host pointed out there had been about 5 feet of snow in the Uni staff car park not many weeks earlier. I was chilled just thinking about it! Snicker! Central NY is not quite a bad as Minnesota. We average 119" of snow. However, we do have four seasons (count them) of varying lengths, average only 4 days a summer over 90 F. We have no hurricanes, tidal waves, forest fires, or earthquakes. Unfortunately, we do have the most polluted lake on the continent, which they are slowly trying to redeem. And we have some very nice scenery, even more spectacular in the Adirondacks, and famous autumn foliage. Iris, Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40 "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra |
In article , wrote:
In article , Phred wrote: One of the local supermarkets has recently been flogging another type of yam and, judging by how clean the things are, I suspect they might actually be edible aerial tubers in this case. Pale buff skin and pure white flesh with even a suggestion of translucence. The texture is light and crisp -- rather "refreshing" eaten raw, but bugger all flavour. (Rather like the tubers of _Pachyrhizus tuberosa_ in fact.) Could be jicama, P. erosus, which is in the Fabaceae, or maybe P.erosus is really P.tuberosus, with the error propagated around the web. At any rate it's a popular vegetable in Mexico and adjacent parts of the US and answers this description, especially if it's sort of vertically flattened. Recently it's become popular as a salad ingredient in California new cuisine, so the yuppies are creating a demand for it, and it's in all the supermarkets here. Yeah. They are "sort of vertically flattened", so maybe they are as you suggest. I've only eaten _P. tuberosa_ tubers dug out of a local yard, and they were pretty dirty. :-) So I rather assumed these really clean things from the supermarket must have been an aerial organ, and we had been discussing _Dioscorea_ "bulbils" around the smoko table not long before. (In fact a colleague had brought some in for us to try -- from a form known to be edible of course. 8-) There seem to be a lot of Dioscorea yam cultivars. I don't know if they are all D.batatas. There are a lot of people in Toronto from the West Indies and Central America, and the supermarkets carry yams of many types and colors. All the ones I've seem have been sort of rough and shaggy, not smooth as you describe. There are probably culinary differences since stores normally carry several kinds if they carry any. Cheers, Phred. -- LID |
In article , (Iris Cohen) wrote:
I find the thought of frost to 36" more than a little frightening! One gets used to it. Remember up in Zones 1 &2 they have Permafrost. That is why conservationists are so opposed to drilling for oil in the Arctic. The permanently frozen ground ecology is extremely fragile. I recall being in St Paul/Minneapolis in ... April? ... many years ago, and thought I'd found the perfect climate -- until my host pointed out there had been about 5 feet of snow in the Uni staff car park not many weeks earlier. I was chilled just thinking about it! Snicker! Central NY is not quite a bad as Minnesota. We average 119" of snow. However, we do have four seasons (count them) of varying lengths, average only 4 days a summer over 90 F. We have no hurricanes, tidal waves, forest fires, or earthquakes. How boring! ;-) Unfortunately, we do have the most polluted lake on the continent, That's some consolation I guess. :):) which they are slowly trying to redeem. And we have some very nice scenery, even more spectacular in the Adirondacks, and famous autumn foliage. Our "autumn foliage" tends to be just brown, dry, and dead -- and usually is seen mostly in late spring/early summer when it's bloody hot as well as dry before the first storms of the wet season. (Mind you, not much more than 10 or 15 km away per crow there are mountains covered with tropical rainforest -- but that's just green all year. Boring. ;-) Cheers, Phred. -- LID |
The weather in Syracuse is NEVER boring. We can have a temperature drop of 30
degrees in half a day, or 60 deg. in a day & a half. (Fahrenheit degees are smaller than Centigrade.) We get more rainbows than other parts of the country, and occasionally Northern Lights. We once had something, I forget what they called it, which is a tornado that doesn't turn (Killed two people). And have you ever seen graupel, even in Minnesota? Graupel is snow that falls as miniature snowballs. And we get nice warm sun in summer without so much coastal humidity. But if my grandchildren weren't here, I would still move to a warmer climate. Iris, Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40 "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra |
In article , (Iris Cohen) wrote:
The weather in Syracuse is NEVER boring. We can have a temperature drop of 30 degrees in half a day, or 60 deg. in a day & a half. (Fahrenheit degees are smaller than Centigrade.) A drop of 20 to 25C overnight is not unusual here (20C would probably be pretty normal in fact) but, day on day, even 8 to 10C would be pretty extreme. We get more rainbows than other parts of the country, and occasionally Northern Found any pots of gold? :-) Lights. We once had something, I forget what they called it, which is a tornado that doesn't turn (Killed two people). And have you ever seen graupel, even in Minnesota? Graupel is snow that falls as miniature snowballs. And we get nice warm sun in summer without so much coastal humidity. But if my grandchildren weren't here, I would still move to a warmer climate. You know, I'm starting to wonder if cooler is healthier. What brought this to mind is that the last of the Australian First World War veterans have been dying off over the past few years, and a surprising number of them seem to have lived in Tasmania. Given the small population of that State I can only assume they sent off a very high proportion of volunteers or the ones that did go went on to live a very healthy life in our coldest State. Cheers, Phred. -- LID |
(Phred) wrote:
You know, I'm starting to wonder if cooler is healthier. What brought this to mind is that the last of the Australian First World War veterans have been dying off over the past few years, and a surprising number of them seem to have lived in Tasmania. Given the small population of that State I can only assume they sent off a very high proportion of volunteers or the ones that did go went on to live a very healthy life in our coldest State. See http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/.../2102rank.html It's hard to see any obvious relation to cold or warm climates. In the top 10 we have warm to hot climates (Macau, Singapore, Hong Kong) and cooler ones. A quick glance suggests that a long life expectancy is more strongly related to wealth and, perhaps, an ethnically homogeneous population (such as Japan or Iceland). -- Mitt huvud trillar av och det är fullt av godis. |
Charles Hawtrey said the following on 13/12/2004 3:11 AM:
See http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/.../2102rank.html It's hard to see any obvious relation to cold or warm climates. In the top 10 we have warm to hot climates (Macau, Singapore, Hong Kong) and cooler ones. A quick glance suggests that a long life expectancy is more strongly related to wealth and, perhaps, an ethnically homogeneous population (such as Japan or Iceland). Recent articles in Time and The Weekend Australian suggest that it can be more lifestyle (don't each to much and an active lifestyle). |
"Phred" wrote in message ... .............................. You know, I'm starting to wonder if cooler is healthier. What brought this to mind is that the last of the Australian First World War veterans have been dying off over the past few years, and a surprising number of them seem to have lived in Tasmania. Given the small population of that State I can only assume they sent off a very high proportion of volunteers or the ones that did go went on to live a very healthy life in our coldest State. I read that Aussie POW's survived much better than others, particularly British, apparently due to better diet & living conditions growing up. |
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