A few weeks ago we went to the Heritage Fruits Society Apple Tasting Festival at Pettys Orchard in Templestowe Victoria. Had a great day tasting a small selection of the more than 200 varieties of heritage and rare apples and looking for replacements for two of the apple trees that died this year. Their demise was caused by stupidity on my part when I severely damaged the roots trying to straighten them up because they were growing at an angle. I’ll be going back on the grafting days to select a couple of new trees shortly.

In the meantime I picked a couple of additions for the food forest, a babaco and a yacon.

Babaco

The Babaco is a small tree with few branches. It can grow to 5–8 m tall. The fruit is similar to the papaya (to which it is related) and is pentagonal in shape but is narrower. The fruit is seedless and the smooth skin can be eaten. People have described the taste as a mix of strawberry, papaya, kiwi and pineapple. I can’t wait to try it!

It’s been repotted and is in the greenhouse to protect it during winter. Hopefully it will fruit in the first year and we’ll try to take some cuttings after that.

Yacon

Yacons are sometimes known as apple potatoes. They are distantly related to the sunflower and grown for their potato-like tuber that are sweet and taste like an apple or melon. I’ll find out in a few months. 🙂

I have potted mine up in a larg tub and it is sitting under the bay tree under the pegola where it is protected from strong winds and any frosts. Once I have a few tubers, I’ll plant some out in to the garden.