Mashua is a tuber crop native to the Andes and a member of the family Tropaeolaceae, along with the common garden nasturtium. It produces tubers that can be cooked like a potato and leaves and flowers are edible too. Tubers taste better roasted rather than boiled as they can have an overpowering ‘cabbagey’ flavour which some people find hard to handle! Mashua does have the potential to be grown as a perennial salad crop with leaves having a spicy mustard taste. Flowers have an aniseed taste and appear really late in the season. We have grown Mashua as a companion to our Yacon plants which worked quite well, as the vines climbed the stems of the yacon and were happy to share the same space.