41 Farrell street, Yandina
Chinese Water Chestnut
Eleocharis dulcis
Origin: hot, humid tropics of China and Australasia
Plant: Sept – Nov
Harvest: July – Aug
Wait till sedge tops die down completely as the corms need to have the time to change to their final dark brown colour. Peel and slice to add to Asian stir-fries.
Perennial shrub with edible tubers. 
Other Names: Manioc, Manihot, Tapioca, Yucca
Origin: South AMerica
Size: 2m high, 1m spread
Growing conditions: full sun
Propagation: Semi-hardwood cuttings planted directly into ground during spring to autumn.
Growing tips: Cassava will grow in any soil from sand to heavy clay (it’s often used to break up compacted clay soils). During extreme drought bushes may drop their leaves but spring to life again when rain returns. Avoid water-logged soils and plant in a raised mound if necessary. Can be grown as a hedge with 1 metre spacing. After 2-3 months of growth, mound up the soil around the base to encourage root growth. Tubers can grow 15-100cm long and weigh in excess of 5-6kg.
Use: Once tubers are harvested, they need to be processed (or cooked/frozen) within 2 days although they can be refrigerated for another 5 days or so. Variegated cassava can be eaten also but needs thorough washing and cooking to remove the bitter taste.
Tubers MUST be cooked with the lid off to deactivate the hydrocyonic acid after you have used a sharp knife to slice vertically to remove this thick outer skin which, when fresh, just peels away cleanly. Cassava can be boiled, baked, roasted, made into chips (our favourite), added to soups and casseroles, grated for cakes and many baked goods.
Availability in shop: all year, best in summer
Bitter Melon (aka balsam pear or bitter gourd)
Momordica charantia
Origin: Hot, humid China and India
Plant: Sept – Dec
Harvest: Jan – April
Young fruit are harvested 8 – 10 days after the flowers open. Each fruit will be 100-150mm long, knobbly, light green with white flesh inside, 10 – 12 fruit per vine. Picked fruit stays firm and fresh for about 4 or 5 days in a plastic bag in the fridge. Scrape out seeds, they are bitter. Note: older, riper fruit is extremely bitter and toxic to man and animals.
Arrowroot
Canna edulis
Origin: Hot, humid Queensland
Plant: Any time
Harvest: 12-18 months for edible rhizomes.
Suggested Recipes: Root Vegetable Curry, Vegetable Pikelets
Use as a ‘chop n drop’ mulch, or leave to form a weed barrier with pigeon pea, lemon grass and comfrey. Good bulk food to grow for livestock. Arrowroot can be
planted to provide a windbreak or shade for more delicate vegies. They will grow almost anywhere, in any type of soil and with minimal water requirements. Propagation is simply planting a piece of the rhizome that has an ‘eye’. This eye will become your new plant. Keep arrowroot for eating separate from that grown for ‘chop n drop’ as it needs to be grown over a longer period – at least twelve months old – to develop the tubers; it is best harvested when still young and before the fibre develops. The tubers can be cooked (add lemon juice to cooking water to prevent oxidisation) and grated then added to stews/casseroles as a thickener; tubers can be roasted or sliced thinly and cooked as chips (use a bit of garlic in the oil as well). The starch can be extracted and used to make arrowroot biscuits.
Arrowhead
Sagittaria sagittifolia syn. Sagittaria sinensis
Origin: South, Central and North America
Plant: Early Spring
Harvest: When leaves turn yellow and die back.
Arrowhead is a water plant, tubers are planted approx. 4-5 cm deep and spaced about 10 cm apart in soil in either a pond or tub, then covered with water 10-30 cm deep. Arrowhead is an easy to grow plant with no special growing requirements other than maintaining a cover of shallow water over the soil. It is very hardy plant, grows to 30 cm high and likes full sun.
The arrowhead-tuber flesh is cream coloured and can be eaten boiled, baked or fried, however, it should not be eaten raw. Simply boil tubers until tender, slice thinly and serve tossed in butter or sesame oil; alternatively, the cooked and cold tubers can be grated or sliced into a salad. The young shoots can also be eaten.