Pretty plant, isn't it?
Yep, very ornamental.
It was on Brisbane Local Food that I learnt you could eat this arrowroot. It's been in our garden for longer than we have, and I'd always called it Canna Lily and thought it was purely ornamental. I got so excited when I realised it was also something starting with a Q, and I did a little happy dance on the spot.
I don't like Quince.
So I'm cheating a little, again, because in order to qualify for my 26 days of planting project, I'm supposed to be planting new things. But you don't refuse the letter Q when it's starting at you in the face and hey, I was also curious as to how it would taste.
So I thought I'd dig up a few tubers, some to replant in another spot and qualify, and some to eat.
On the Bushfood Nursery website, they go on about grinding the stuff up and using it as flour, before blithely writing that Queensland Arrowroot tubers can also be "simply used like a potato and made into chips".
Now in a choice between grinding up a tuber or making chips from it, the chips are going to win for me every time.
Wrong.
I dug up a tuber and found an alien being that I was pretty sure I was not going to be grinding, slicing, or indeed, putting it anywhere near my dining table.
I think I was having heart palpitations just handling it, waiting for it to start writhing in my hands.
Intent on getting a blog post out of this, I gritted my teeth and cleaned it up as best I could. I scrubbed and hacked at it like a champion, thinking all the while, it'll scrub up well Ali, and you'll make chips Ali, delicious golden chips.
Finally I flip flopped it out onto the bench and took stock of my work.
Now you tell me that it doesn't look like something dragged up off the ocean floor.
Chips my bottom. Not a chance.
I've since learnt that you dig up the baby fresh tubers and eat them. Not freaking monsters that have been lurking under the surface since the beginning of time. Not even for your entertainment would I eat that thing.
I'm still imagining it scurrying it around my kitchen floor.
20 comments:
I never heard or planted arrowroot before. It does give an exotic flair in the garden with the beautiful foliage.The tuber look similarly like galangal. If you like to, please join us for "Seed Week" and share your experience with us with your gardening adventure.
Eat it, Eat it, Eat it......
Actually dont.............that would taste like dirt for sure...........
The tubers of the quince remind me of the tubers of canna ... and yes they do look like aliens sometimes.
Thanks for stopping by my blog for Shadow Shot Sunday.
Yep, it certainly looks like something from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (or a giant cockroach). Don't you sometimes wonder how desperate someone would need to be in order to think that something like that could actually be edible?
The Arrowroot powder you buy in shops is used as a thickening agent. I wonder if it comes from plants like the one you describe? Must be quite a complex operation to make something so ugly into something as uncontroversial-looking as some plain white powder. (Though of course that is probably what they say about all "white powders", such as those that start life as poppies!)
Heats me your pictures! because for me it's cold.
omg, it's even got an eye! It's alive I tell you, and not in a vegetable way.
There's a big difference between CAN be eated and SHOULD be eaten. All kids know this truth.
Eat it! East it! Eat it!
You crack me up so much Ali, and here I was waiting to find up whether to bother cooking up mine! At least the leaves make good mulch and chicken food so are still permaculture and who knows one day you might be really desperate...
Sorry about last post. Accidently deleted it! Just saying that it is nice to find another very inspiring gardening blog. I love the idea of your 26 day project. I wonder what you will plant for X??
Ooo Amber I'm not telling... I'm going to cheat though!
Donna, I'm sure they are good when they are young, I just dug up a dinosaur... and you are right, I could be really desperate. There's a McDonald's across the road, I'd go there first!
Hazel and Suzanne, please, after you :p
Missy, you are 100% right. And I will try this on my kids first next time!
Laura, CG and Mark, I'm so glad you both recognised it as a creature from the deep@!
Pommes Cannelles you must be freezing your butt off over there, I will try to post some more blue sky for you :)
And Malay-Kadazan girl, thanks for the invitation, I will go and have a look tonight :)
It is very ornamental. Oh, if I would grow all the plants I like, I would need larger garden, much larger...
I don't like quince either. We have one quince tree and there is so many fruit on it and i don't eat any.
vrtlarica ana, oh yes, what I wouldn't give for a few acres in the suburbs! Oh well, it would just mean more weeds.
Do you ever make jam from your quince?
Ali, the arrowroot bulb is quite good made into chips, but use newer ones & cut off all the tough outside skin first. Also good roasted.
Love your humor.
Lol, thanks Jane, I read somewhere that it's a good idea to soak them for about four hours before cooking them, so I will try that too. Do you soak them?
I have lots and lots of new shoots coming up, I will try the young ones next time.
Hi Ali :)
Have just been introduced to your personal blog.
That doesn't look anything like the Arrowroot I grow and eat. Sure it isn't just a Canna?
I know they are related (thanks to BLF) but still not clear if Canna are edible.
My Arrowroot are large, purplish and roundish. Easy to scrub clean, cut off the skin and cook (roasted with Tamari sauce is my favourite).
Oh hey Lissa, thank you so much for joining Mud Pie :)
I'm not sure it's not just Canna, no! I just googled Queensland Arrowroot and looked at the images.
I didn't eat it though, would you look at that thing? Nasty!!
Yоur currеnt write-up has confirmed
necesѕarу to myself. It’ѕ extremely educatiоnаl аnd you're clearly really experienced of this type. You possess opened up my sight for you to different thoughts about this kind of topic using intriguing, notable and reliable written content.
My web site ... Buy Xanax
Your current ρоst has verified useful to
myself. It’s extremely еducational and you really are
naturally quite knowlеdgeablе
in thiѕ area. Υou get popped my personal fаce for уou to vaгious views on
this specifіc subject using intriguing, notable and гeliablе content material.
Also visit my webpage : buy ambien
Post a Comment
comment here!