Serendipity

From: GeoffAroid <GeoffAroid at aol.com> on 1998.05.06 at 13:10:27(2094) Hi everyone, I just had to share this with someone! Living in London I have the benefit of being surrounded by peoples of all races and so in greengrocers here you can easily find foods from as far apart as the West Indies, China, Turkey etc. This means that it is easy to find the many types of Taro, Eddoes, Yams etc. But imagine my surprise when on walking past what looked like an Indian grocers I saw in a basket outside 2 large (5-6 in) round tubers with central depressions and rings of root scars - Amorphophallus! I know that A. paeonifolius is widely grown for food in many parts of Asia but have never seen them for sale in Britain before. On inquiring I found that the shopkeeper is from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and that the tubers are traditionally sliced and fried and added to curries and has a local name which means curry- root. +More Having persuaded him not to cut them in half to weigh them (they were too heavy for his scales) I was then charged the princely sum of 5 US dollars each!! This has to be the bargain of the year for me and I can't wait until they start growing. Although the tubers are similar to those of A.konjac they have many more root scars arranged in very even rings around the tuber. So hunt down your Sri Lankan grocers and see if they know/ stock this species! Happy growing to all, Geoffrey

From: "ken johnson" <ken2j at dte.net> on 1998.05.06 at 17:21:59(2095) GeoffAroid wrote on Wednesday, May 06, 1998 . >etc, etc, ... Although the tubers are similar to those of A.konjac they > have many more root scars arranged in very even rings around the tuber. So > hunt down your Sri Lankan grocers and see if they know/ stock this species! +More > > Happy growing to all, Geoffrey Dear Geoffrey- I can can just picture myself trying to discribe this to my local Sri Lankan grocer!! I would sure like to see a picture of the tuber first before I went on my hunt. Have you ever seen one on a web-page, or could you post one? Danyawad, KJ

From: GeoffAroid <GeoffAroid at aol.com> on 1998.05.07 at 01:00:38(2096) KJ, I tried sending you a pic as an attachment but it keeps bouncing back...so... try logging on to my website to see the pic posted there. The address is: http://members.aol.com/Geoffaroid/amorph.jpg. +More Make sure amorph is spelt with all lowercase! Regards, Geoffrey

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