Ube: DO NOT PLANT
Ube update: Well, that was mortifying. After proudly taking the ube rolls I’d made to the Windermere Garden Club and touting ube as a fun crop, I learned from a Master Gardener that the plant IS an invasive and IS NOT permitted to be planted in Florida. I’d made the rookie mistake of searching by its common name when I was reading about it. Turns out University of Florida’s Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plant’s plant directory uses “winged yam”, rather than “ube”. Had I used its scientific name, the “Not Permitted” status would have popped right up. I wrote up a mea culpa email that I hope the club will send to members since I won’t be at the next meeting to take back my cheerleading. I’ve also email the 2 members to whom I gave ube potatoes, asking them to destroy, not plant them. Today I’m digging up the one I have in the ground and the one in my big pot. If there are any potatoes, I’m making more of the ube paste since we really liked it. Everything else is being chopped up a...