I remember when my dad got a hernia and he couldn't do anything either. Those lemon apple cucumbers look tasty! I'll add those to my list for a future season. I want to try the tubers as well! Did you know tubers are modified stems?
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They are really tasty, both the yacon roots and the lemon apple cucumber. :0)
What do you mean with ‘modified stems’? Never heard of that before...
Potatoes for example are tubers, not roots. Although they serve as nutrient storage, they appear to be structurally more similar to stems than roots. It's interesting what Wikipedia has to say about this:
"The tuber has all the parts of a normal stem, including nodes and internodes. The nodes are the eyes and each has a leaf scar. The nodes or eyes are arranged around the tuber in a spiral fashion beginning on the end opposite the attachment point to the stolon. The terminal bud is produced at the farthest point away from the stolon attachment and tubers thus show the same apical dominance as a normal stem. Internally, a tuber is filled with starch stored in enlarged parenchyma like cells. The inside of a tuber has the typical cell structures of any stem, including a pith, vascular zones, and a cortex."
Source:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuber
So if I get it right: the parts of yacon you eat are the roots, while the part you dig up to store in a frost-free place to plant it out again in spring (so it will grow a new plant) are the tubers...
Guess that’s right. ‘Cos I remember now where I got the word ‘tubers’ from: it was the part of the cucamelon plant to dig up and replant in spring.
Thanks! Another thing learned today :0)