New Zealand Red

This red oca has a small amount of black pigment outlining each ‘eye’ on the tuber, which is quite subtle but has a striking effect. It was sent to us by Cath Hillman in Surrey, who is originally from New Zealand and is always one of our most productive varieties. 

There’s an interesting story in this – in the 1970s and 1980s the NZ goverment decided to research unusual plants that would grow there and could be high-value export crops. They did find and breed several things with varying success- you will probably know the Kiwi Fruit which was good, but also the (rather less tasty!) Kiwano Horned Melon. 

However, few people outside NZ know they also had a government-funded oca research programme. Like us, they tried to breed new varieties from seed (oca seed is very rare). It was quite sucessful, and although not exported (we don’t know why) oca are commonly sold in supermarkets in NZ, though they are just called ‘Yams’ by the New Zealanders. 

Back to our story, Cath liked them very much, so when she found herself living in the UK she missed having them to eat. She eventually got hold of some from a NZ supermarket and grew them in Surrey, where they did just fine. And she later sent us some of hers to swap for our others; they did well for us and we have been bulking them up ever since.