Yacon harvest

Today I write in English, simply because I  think my theme will interest a broader public than usual.
I have harvested my yacon, and here is the story of how it has grown.

Early this spring I was offered three tiny caudices from the Norwegian Seed Savers. They were planted immediately in three 7-8 cm pots, and kept under artifical light indoors. 

One month after, they looked like this (the third one never showed up...):

Frost usually keeps away after mid May here in Kristiansand, south of Norway.

So I gave them a place in approx. 35-40 cm (?) of  soil outside.
And put fibre cloth over it, quite thight. (The sticks are to avoid the potato part of the bed to become a cat toilet...) The light conditions are not so good in my garden, most of it will be in semi shadow.

May 18, 2014

June 17, 2014 Still with the protection on.

August 20, some time during summer it grew too tall for the fibre cloth frame. :-)

October 20, this is me and the monster plant. Photographer is my husband. 

The rest of the pictures are even more nerdy, sorry to say! :-D

The size was really impressing (at least until I googled how big they COULD be!

 Root lices, I think. Does not seem to have affected the plant in any way, luckily.

I suppose these small caudices are the gold for further breeding, so I have to find out if I should cut them off...

The full harvest from the two plants, (except for the one below...)

1/2 litre glass (from the local brewery, btw.)

And the taste? Mild, something between a carrot and a sharron fruit. 

The consistence is somewhat like a water chestnut. 

This has really been this summer's best fun. It has been a very sunny mid summer, and a very rainy autumn, so I suppose that is the perfect condition for this one! A bit sorry I never saw flowers, but  next year... ;-)