Sunchokes AKA Jerusalem Artichokes

[babymakes6]

Here is some info about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke
My Grandma used to slice them and we would eat them raw. I always enjoyed them.

 

[hoodat]

My favorite way is to lightly steam them then add a pat of butter and some chopped parsley and toss them in it while still hot. The skin is thin so if you give them a good scrub with a vegetable brush before cooking you don't need to peel them.

 

[hoodat]

Ok, I'm interested but someone please tell me how you fix them, what they taste like, etc..

My folks grew them but I was gone. I do remember in central Illinois some snake-oil-conman came threw, convinced farmers to grow some acres. Couldn't sell them and they became a noxious weed--long before glysophates.

I heard about that in Kansas. They were easy to grow and gave a high yield but there was just no market for them. Americans are slow to take up new foods although we seem to be improving lately. That's ironic in this case since they are a native wild plant in the US and were widely eaten by our Indians so they aren't exactly new, just unfamiliar to most no native Americans.
It's easy for them to run away from you. It's all but impossible to dig out every last tuber and the ones left, even if tiny, will invariably grow. The only way a neighbor in Oklahoma was able to rid himself of them was to fence the area and turn some young pigs into them. They got every last tuber in a couple of months.

An interesting side note is that they have a high inulin (not insulin) content so they have some beneficial effects on preventing diabetes.

 

[seedcorn]

An interesting side note is that they have a high inulin (not insulin) content so they have some beneficial effects on preventing diabetes.

That alone makes them worth trying for me........now to find a root or two. How many roots do you need to plant for 1 person? I'm sure my family won't touch them without someone passing approval besides me...I eat anything once, my family, not so much.

 

[damummis]

Couple of roots will do ya.

There is a disclaimer with sunchokes. They tend to give some people gas. More so than beans.

I am looking for my pickle recipe. Way yummy.

 

[hoodat]

An interesting side note is that they have a high inulin (not insulin) content so they have some beneficial effects on preventing diabetes.

That alone makes them worth trying for me........now to find a root or two. How many roots do you need to plant for 1 person? I'm sure my family won't touch them without someone passing approval besides me...I eat anything once, my family, not so much.

Each tuber will produce a plant that looks like a wild sunflower (same family) and a clump of anywhere from 10 to a couple of dozen new tubers when they die back. The seeds are edible but really too small to bother with although your birds will appreciate them. If you have good soil you will never need to replant. You will invariably miss a few tubers and every one of them will become a new plant. If you have a long growing season you can often get 2 crops in a season.
As Damummis pointed out some people have trouble with digesting the inulin and get gas, sometimes even cramps if they can't get rid of the gas fast enough so be warned to be careful of the company you keep after eating them till you're sure you don't have that problem.