Hot to grow South American crops that you might recognise from health food shops

Maca root is a South American plant that’s a hot favourite now for its health-giving properties.

Hot to grow South American crops that you might recognise from health food shops

Walk into any health store or indeed peruse the health shelf in your local supermarket and you may find maqui berry (Aristotelia chilensis), maca (Lepidium meyenii), chia (Salvia hispanica) and quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa ) sitting along side cacao (Theobroma cacao), lucuma (Pouteria lucuma) and camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia).

All Peruvian plants with an ethnobotany dating back to the Maya, Inca and Aztec cultures.

One might wonder if it’s a marketing scam by the Peruvian agricultural ministry or if in our romanticised notion of the exotic we fall for maca over beetroot. While the proof is always in the pudding, I have tried them all in the interest of science and downright curiosity.

No major miracles, but yes after a few months of a diet peppered with them I do feel energised and I have made it through winter without the sniffles or old war wound stiffness.

Maqui berries are packed full of potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals known as delphinidins currently lauded as a natural remedy for a range of degenerative diseases complicated by inflammation.

Maca root is popular lately as an endurance additive to pre-sporty and post-workout smoothies; traditionally a sexual stimulant, which always helps, it also has some immunostimulant value.

Chia seed is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and plenty of soluble fibre all of which lower risk of obesity, depression, heart disease, cancer, and impaired brain functions.

Quinoa is a grain that’s not quite a grain, and so has great advantage for coeliacs and people following a gluten-free diet — ubiquitous in healthy versions of granolas, cereals, porridge mixes, salads, breads, and crackers.

Quinoa has a unique property in that it helps you feel fuller longer.

Cacao nibs and powder are nutrient-dense but also full of antioxidants and polyphenols delivering general wellbeing as well as anti-inflammatory and cardio-protective effects. Not to be confused with coca (of cocaine fame), that other great Peruvian export — by ‘great’ I don’t mean brilliant. Down with drugs and all that.

Lucuma has that gift of natural sweetness with a low glycemic index and is helpful in lowering blood pressure, and camu-camu is lauded as one of the world’s most potent sources of vitamin C and a shot in the arm to your immune system. Both are tropical fruits packed also with carotenoids and anthocyanins.

Our national crop, the potato, has its origins in the same high hills of the Andes as all these super foods. It was in its day a superfood import too.

Prior to the famine we Irish were known to be “the oxen of Europe” — never sure if that’s a double-edged compliment or even not one at all — but the spud kept us in good stead while other food groups were earmarked to feed the soldiers of the British empire elsewhere.

We know the potato is easy to grow, just stick it in the ground. And while our green fingers might be severely tested with some of the new superfoods, there are Andean crops that will grow very well in an Irish climate. So if you’re up for an experiment, here are three to get you going:

Number one is oca (Oxalis tuberosa), a cousin of those pink oxalis that many of us might remember lining the edges of Grandad’s house, the ones you would nick to sip for a sour but tangy, lemony hit — if like me, you lived on Walton’s mountain and hadn’t a penny for a lollipop from Ike Godsey’s store (it wasn’t quite that bad, but even talking about daisy chains or buttercups under chins seems Stone Age to the i-generation).

Well the tuberosa kind is not so much for sipping, it’s for eating. The tuber, in its native geosphere of Bolivia and Peru, is second only to the potato in its agricultural importance and the local name of papa roja (“red potato”) gives the game away.

The starchy tuber is an excellent source of carbohydrates, full of essential amino acids, phosphorus and iron and tastes a bit like a cross between a potato and a sweet chestnut. It is low cal and packed with vitamin C.

Boiled, baked or steamed is good, but you can eat it raw. I have heard of sun-dried oca too; apparently that brings out a more fruity note.

There are several varieties on the market, some as tiny as Jerusalem artichokes and some decent enough to not bore you with fiddliness.

This is a late season crop harvested in late November and into December, once all the foliage has died completely back. Some aficionados opt to overwinter in polytunnels or grow in potato bags, but you can plant directly outdoors in late May, well after frosts, into a shallow drill. Free draining soil is preferred. Being late there are no blight issues.

For those concerned about oxalates in their diet, exposing the harvested tubers to sunlight diminishes the oxalates in the skins, cooking also greatly diminishes it too.

I got some tubers years ago from America that lasted a few seasons, then disappeared, but two years back I got a batch from The Secret Garden in Cork (shush... but it’s between Kanturk and Newmarket, call 029 60084 for directions) that comes from north Cork stock, well acclimatised and sturdied up over several years.

Number two: Yacón (Smallanthus sonchifolius or Polymnia edulis) is another blight- resistant late season tuber. It’s prized for its flavour, which to some palates is akin to pear, to others more yam or sweet potato like.

It’s a cousin of the common garden dahlia and is grown similarly. Start tubers indoors in April, plant out after frosts.

It can a bit susceptible to wind, rain and cold and aficionados do polytunnel it, but a friend of mine grows a very reliable variety she got from Milkwood Farm, Co Leitrim (cultivated there by Klaus Laitenberger, no less). She grows it in the same rotation bed as her tomatoes.

They will crop heavier if grown under protection. They need a bit of space; I know Klaus gives them the room one would a courgette plant.

A deep fertile soil is preferred. A single average plant can yield up to 4kgs of tubers. When you lift, store the knobbly tubers as seed plants and eat the smoother ones.

Boiled, baked, and even raw. I find that tubers stored for eating will develop a thicker skin that bitters up the longer the storage period, so cook with skin on in the early days, but later on use a potato peeler.

The health kick of this tuber is that it is predominately composed of fructooligosaccharides (insoluble carbs) and water so apart from being low cal, there is hardly any change in blood sugar levels. As a diabetic myself, I appreciate that.

The root veg is also a supplier of calcium potassium and phosphorous. But hey it tastes like a pear, sweet tooth sin without the health punishment.

Number three: You can’t write about Incan crops and not do the Inca berry (Physalis peruviana), heralded as the latest new best thing, but my dad grew them when I was a child, and not for eating but for ornamental Chinese lanterns (available in garden centres under that common name).

They are nutrient-dense and tasty (earthy or musky, with a hint of tropical sweetness). Peruvians eat them raw as a bush fruit or in salads; North Americans eat them in desserts and jams.

Across Europe I’ve seen them dipped in chocolate and dried like figs. As a product it is expensive enough — harvest is labour intensive by commercial standards, so ideal to GIY. They contain phytoconstituents known as ‘withanolides’, currently under study for their anti-cancer potential.

To grow, sun is good and free draining soil beneficial but their preference is a slightly nutrient-poor soil; if the soil is too rich for their blood they will put on masses of foliage but barely fruit. Add some grit.

They may not survive an Arctic winter but are considered hardy to -10°C (14°F). My dad grew them against a sunny wall and they came back perennially without any palaver.

I grow mine in pots and do the old December pot shuffle into the polytunnel to avoid the winter wet as much as any winter cold. This week I am returning them to the warmer corner of my garden.

You know me by now — I rather the road to ‘inspire’ than ‘aspire’ and so I don’t write about things tricky to grow or impossible to source.

Save that for the show-off garden columnists in other papers.

In terms of getting your hands on these crops, if you can be patient and wait until May there may be a range available through Lidl thanks to horticultural supremo Pat Fitzgerald.

Pat grows Incan crops on a large scale for the export market. Pat also grows for Johnstown Garden Centr,e which you can’t beat for stocking the unusual, or for shipping in great nick, in great time.

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