Ube / Kinampay / Purple Yam
I always associated ube jam or jaleya with the holidays. 
For some reason, if it was close to Christmas, it meant there was likely a jar or more of ube jam in the fridge. I have only discovered recently why this was the case in our home. Turns out the season for kinampay or ube in Bohol, where my mom grew up spending her summer vacations, starts in late November and lasts until late January. The incredibly fragrant ube from the island of Bohol is available in abundance during the holiday season…duhhh, that was simple. Boholanos are proud of their ube and it seems the combination of weather conditions, soil quality (or lack of it), etc. has yielded, in their minds, a provincial specialty unlike that of other ube growing regions in the country… I, of course, as a “descendant” of the province…buy the “our ube is best theory,” of course…
Ube or purple yam is one of several edible tubers that are part of the broad genus 
Dioscorea according to The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson. They are not closely related to sweet potatoes nor regular potatoes as most folks might assume. More specifically, ube is one of many yams under the species Dioscorea Alata that thrive all across Southeast Asia and the South Pacific and range in colors from white to deep purple and several shades/colors in-between. Ube can grow to mammoth proportions, with large specimens in Baguio weighing close to 6 or more kilos! These ones here sent by air cargo from Bohol to my kitchen are quite modest in size at just over a kilo a piece. Scraping just a bit of the skin yielded a view of some of the most vividly purple yam I have ever seen.
Growing up I ate ube in several dishes or desserts… as part of a 
guinataan (stewed root vegetables/tubers and fruits in coconut milk), jaleya or jam, ube pastillas, ice-cream, as an ingredient in sapin-sapin or even puto bumbong perhaps… I really do like the fragrance and smell of ube and I was thrilled when my brother sent me some dug up just a few days prior. Taking into account all of the comments from my earlier posts on ube here and here, I decided to make some ube jaleya and some ube pastillas for the recent holidays out of the cache of brilliant Boholano kinampay…recipes coming up in the next few posts!
Great color. Purple yam is a very cool tuber. i do like it as a jam or ice cream. It does freak out europeans however haha. they cannot seem to reconcile the color with the ube flavor.
January 5th, 2006I wonder if Bohol ube is different in taste from the ube I find in the Manila markets? I’m a big fan of this tuber, and I love that it sports such a spectacular purple.
January 5th, 2006the ube you have in photo has a regular round shape. it is being dug under the soil or the ones that i saw that they are like squash being hanged on the trellis. Those i see here in market in manila got long irregular shape.
January 5th, 2006Yes, the ube from Bohol appears to be different…it is more fragrant and incredibly purple. Even the head nun (?) or Chief Sister at Good Shepherd in Baguio said it was the best ube around. I think there are several varieties, some that start out rounder and others that just get incredibly monstrous and grotesque looking…
January 5th, 2006Am an American once stationed in the Phillippines. I loved Ube ice cream. I’ve tried to grow Ube here in Georgia but I lose the tubers during storage during our winter. I am married to an Illacano lady from San Fernando, La Union.
January 12th, 2006David, Filipino stores in the U.S. carry ube powder which can be made into ice cream…you may want to check it out if you need an ube ice cream fix!
January 12th, 2006i wanna plant ube… anyone here know where to buy ube tubers or binhi? i have an almost 1 hectare farm lot in tarlac, tarlac wherein i wanna plant ube…i heard that it is easy to grow and lots of income in it… thanks for response…
May 18th, 2006mary, sorry, I haven’t a clue where to buy ube tubers…don’t you just buy fresh ube and plant it to take root? At any rate, I hope other readers can answer this for you… good luck!
May 20th, 2006can you give me or provide me recipe of ube yam. reading your articles makes me salivating for ube yam. I living here in Cambodia at the moment and ube is abundant, I want to cook for myself and my friends.
thanks and more power
Rose
July 24th, 2006Rosemarie, I have a recipe in my archives…check out this link http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/ube-jaleya-purple-yam-jam - there are over 600 posts on marketmanila as of today so there are probably quite a few recipes that might be of interest to you…you just have to dig on the archives a bit. Good luck with the jam…
July 24th, 2006My i assk some questions regarding to ube/halaya and kinampay variety?
1. Is there some preservatives that i can use to prolonge the life of my halaya, to avoid early spoilage?
2. Where can i get some planting materials of your kinampay?it is available in Cavite or near the vicinity of cavite?
Thank you very much!
August 24th, 2006Jeffrey, I have never used preservatives for ube jam or haleya…part of the attraction of home made delicacies is that they are fresh and unadulterated. I have never grown ube so I wouldn’t be much help finding you plants… I find the best ube comes from Bohol…
August 24th, 2006hi! just wondering how long would it take before you can use the ube u planted? ( just in case i want to plant one hehehe!)
August 25th, 2006tnx!
gosh i wish i could find purple yams here in Indonesia…. i only get it in ice cream version which is fab by magnolia. miss it like mad haha.
March 2nd, 2007I wonder where outside of Phillipines, where I can obtain fresh unfrozen tuber…. Love them. Xia , I would plant them too.
July 14th, 2007I found this ube at ABC Market in “Little Saigon”, Garden Grove, Ca. A Vietnamese lady was buying a big bunch of them. Out of curiousity, I asked her how she cooked it. She told me she just either boils or steams it until fork tender and then chills it in the frig and eats it the following day for breakfast with her coffee. “It taste better when eaten cold than when it’s hot and freshly cooked” she says. I did just what she told me and, boy of boy! I’m hooked. I have two tubers left which I’ll try to propagate it. This way, if I’m successful in growing it, I don’t have to hunt around to find more ube; …it is scarce. Having read the comments on this site,I wish the ube I have is the Bohol variety. But since I don’t know the difference, I’m happy with what I have.
August 7th, 2007I am from Manila yet have lived now in the States for over 30 years. i live in Tennessee and use to buy the “ube” mixture in the jar. Lately, I am having a hard time finding this. I have to wait till I visit relatives in CA and that way I can bring home to TN all the “ube” I can store and eat later. I have a friend who while visiting San Diego, went to an Oriental store and bought me some “ube” tubulars. My requset to anyone out there is, ” Can someone give me a receipt to cook the “ube” that is eaten like a dessert or put in the Halo-halo.” Thanks in advance.
August 29th, 2007Yvonne, there is a recipe for ube jam in my archives. Just type ube jam and keep scrolling down until you find the entry you need.
August 29th, 2007I grew up in Indang, Cavite and I really love haleya(one of my favorites! Best eaten with the matching favorite sopas - Inay’s native chicken with Royal Spaghetti noodles).
Inay wouldn’t spare the Holidays of her best harvest of ubi which my friends and officemates really enjoy. Not free!!! but a competitive price for a good quality. She makes good income from her hundreds of kilos during this season.
I have started growing ubi here in Tandang Sora. I hope to make some money out of it, too.
Interested with planting materials? Just let me know. Let’s make business.
December 30th, 2007I have been looking for plant material for “Purple Yam” for a very long time. Can someone help me get it? I’m will happily pay in advance for a good source. Thanks in advance.
January 1st, 2008My family is in ube jalaya maker for 30 years now, it started since my great grand father. Mostly, our costumers are foreigners who tasted our product, and the balikbayans that will return to their work in abroad. They used to purchase 10-20 kilos of our home made ube jalaya and sell it to our kababayans that loved our product. Sad to say, we can only cook 1 batch per day that will produce 10-22 kilos of ube jalaya, this is due to lack of capital and a steady supplier of ube raw materials. I hope you can help me in a way to find a steady supplier of raw ube because the supply here in cainta rizal is very rare, thats why we have to buy to a adjacent townmarket for a higher price. By the way, its my turn to manage the production from now on, i hope that i can grow our business that my great grandfather started. you can email my at mjsfelix@hotmail.com if you are interested
January 5th, 2008Hi there,
January 22nd, 2008i am so interested to grow ubi. can anyone tell me what the ph of soil for ubi to grow well?
many thanks everyone.
I am from Sabah and can anybody help mail me the ube.
May 22nd, 2008I want to make ice cream.
Ubi planting materials can be obtained in November to February. I can help you find planting materials (tubers that you still need to cut into pieces)of some purple varieties. Kinampay is difficult to obtain though because of limited supply; it’s also very sensitive to diseases. I can also give you pointers on how to grow it, but I have to tell you its pretty expensive, perhaps around the cost of growing strawberries.
Ms. Sue lico, you can grow ubi in soils with pH values of 5 to 8. It’s an upland crop and doesn’t like walerlogged land. It’s very important to put support (about 2 meter stakes) for the growing vines.
July 1st, 2008