The Yardstead

Taro is grown around the world primarily for the edible corms it produces. It is a staple in many countries around the world. Taro is commnly eaten in many South Asian coutries including China, Taiwan, South Korea, The Philippines and many West African countries as well, like Nigeria and Cameroon. I had read about Taro many times in gardening books, but i never knew what the mature plants look like. The Taro plant looks exactly like what we commonly refer to in the south US as 'elephant ears'. Taro is closely related to caladium and Xanthosoma plants which are very common landscape plants. We had some 'elephant ears' growing in what must have been an old flower bed here at the yardstead. Kathleen recently ordered some Taro culms which we planted in containers for now. We plan to move them outside at the beginning of Spring and plant them where the 'elephant ears' used to be. It took me about 2 years to get rid of the old plants there because everytime i cut 1 plant down or pulled 1 up, 2 more plants started from the culms that were underground. I hope these taro plants are as hearty as the ones I got rid of. If so we will have plenty of taro to eat in a few months.

taro is usually cooked and eaten the same way we cook and eat potatoes here in the US. You may have heard that 'elephant ears' are poisonous to eat and that is true of the raw leaves and corms. The raw plant contains calcium oxalate which is toxic, but it is destroyed when the plant is cooked. As soon as we have enough corms for a meal i'll post some pictures of harvesting, preparing, and cooking the Taro.