sunchokes aka jerusalem artichokes

http://www.permies.com

Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes) can be harvested all winter. No canning. No drying. No root cellar. Once established they typically require zero care. They taste a little like water chestnuts. When cooked they taste like potatoes. When cooked a long time, they become sweet.

Helen Atthowe http://www.veganicpermaculture.com of Stevensville, Montana, likes to eat them raw or mix them with other root crops and do a roast with rosemary and tamari.

Norris Thomlinson of Portland, Oregon, talks about how he ate about a pound a day all winter. He kept a pot of them cooking on the woodstove to help convert the inulin to sugar. Without this technique, you might fart a lot and call these "fartichokes". A small patch produced about a hundred pounds last year. He also talks about how his chickens would eat about a pound a day.

Michael Pilarski shares that thick stalks are indicators of lots of tubers. He also says that sunchokes make for the fastest privacy hedges.

Kelly Ware of Bigfork, Montana shows how she integrated a patch of sunchokes with her kids' sandbox. The sunchokes appear to really like the sand! Kelly points out that sunchokes are popular for the raw food diet. And she mentions how sunchokes make a good flour as a gluten free flour substitute. She mentions how it the dried canes make for a good bamboo substitute.

Jen Davis of Portland, Oregon has a huge patch even though she doesn't like the flavor. She thinks they make a good survival food - just in case. Anne Trudeau shares a recipe of roasted sunchokes with lemon.

Relevant threads at permies:
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-f...
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-f...
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-f...
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-f...

music by Jimmy Pardo

• Category

  Science & Technology

[ElGatoLoco698]

I'm gonna try some sunchokes. Think they'll grow well in Texas?

[witchapparatus]

"Because it's a survival food, man!" That's a great way to see things. :)

[pinkr4bb1t]

Provide...

[pinkr4bb1t]

My question is how much mineral and vitamin nutritional value does permaculture...urbanized gardening procide with the constant injection of chemicals whether it be pharmaceutical or treatments....we have destroyed our planet. Sure u may save money however!

[shoopdeedoop]

Do you remember the name of the Seed Supplier? I have never seen the seeds for sale.

[paulwheaton12]

That makes damn good sense. I had never thought of that. thanks! thumbs up for you!

[Jefferdaughter]

Not everyone has the same issue with this plant. The condition of the digestive tract & the intestinal flora vary greatly from one person to another. Those accustommed to eating 'real' food (not packaged or fast food), whose diets contain a good % of raw foods will likely have little or no trouble. Some say leaving them in the ground until after a frost helps - as well as slow cooking. Eating large amounts of an unfamiliar food is inviting trouble. Allow the digestive system to adjust.

[1stBumbleBeeMaster]

It is worth noting that they only produce Tubers towards the fall. If you dig them to early there will be nothing there. Does any one know where I can get the real jerusalem artichoke seeds from? All we have in this are are sterile clones that never flower. I initially bought them as a plant for the flowers for the bees so after 3 years of them growing with no flowers it has been a major disappointment...

[JonFrumTheFirst]

3:30 - "I ate a pound per day..." Really? Did George Bush come looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction? These things are stink-roots - you better not live with anyone, and don't light a match either. That first woman who eats them raw? Nasty. From 1621: "which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men."