eureka! oca info

Diane Whitehead voltaire@islandnet.com
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 13:34:48 PDT
I decided to Google for oca recipes and found lots, but they all seem 
to involve a goose.  I think oca must mean goose in one of the 
Mediterranean languages.

  According to Cornucopia II, the leaves are edible.  The tubers, 
after a few days' drying in the sun to reduce oxalic acid, are eaten 
raw, used in soups or stews, or candied like sweet potatoes.  If they 
are dried longer, they are eaten with honey or sugar cane as a 
dessert.

I presume the roots someone saw for sale have come in from New 
Zealand which has been growing oca since the 1860s. According to Lost 
Crops of the Andes, trial shipments from New Zealand were rejected by 
inspectors in the U.S. who thought they were potatoes.

The New Zealand type is not sensitive to daylength.

There are other oxalis listed as edible, too. Great way to get rid of 
the weedy ones.

acetosella (small amounts of leaves to nibble, also used to curdle ewe's milk)

corniculata (leaves raw or cooked, fruit to nibble)

deppei (leaves in salads and soups, flowers excellent in salads, 
roots boiled and served like asparagus)

oregana (leaves in salad, fermented slightly for a tasty dessert, 
stalks to make "rhubarb" pie)

stricta (leaves raw or cooked, flowers and roots, seedpods are called 
"little bananas" and eaten)

Diane Whitehead  Victoria, B.C., Canada


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