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Artichoke Page
Jerusalem Artichokes:
Introduction
According to the New Whole Foods Encyclopedia
"Jerusalem Artichokes
are a superior source of inulin, a natural fructose that is medicinal
for diabetics. This sweet tuber relieves asthmatic
conditions, treats constipation,.... [And is] an
aphrodisiac...."
Tumbledown doesn't know about all that. Sometimes I think
people
confuse inulin with insulin, though if sunchokes are
substituted for potatoes you will remove a lot of starch from
your diet. The best thing is that Jerusalem
Artichokes are easy to
grow
(native plants!), easy to store throughout the winter, and useful for
all sorts of dishes from salads to chowders to roasts.
The
rabbits will eat them too, tops and tubers, so that's another 40 lb bag
of feed I'll not have to buy!
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Never heard of a Jerusalem Artichoke? Don't feel bad; neither
had I until I read about them in John and Sally Seymour's The
New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency
. (Or was it Farming for Self-Sufficiency:
Independence on a Five-Acre Farm? I
forget now, but you can get either by following the links to Amazon.)
At any rate, the Seymours were nothing if not (how to say it
nicely?) frugal. If something of value could be had for
little money or work, they could be counted on to know about
it and be able to tell you how to do it yourself. So that's
how a "weed" came to be relished in my garden.
I never dreamed I would find an "invasive" food plant!
Usually you have to improve the soil mightily to get a few
puny vegetables to grow. But not these sunchokes!
Go figure. Just make sure you plant them in some
"out of the way corner" where tall, weedy sunflowers will not get much
notice. If you are lucky, the only person in the neighborhood
who will know
that you are sitting on a pile of gold potatoes will be you!
The neighborhood association may complain at your choice of
flowers, but a Sunchoke is a flower! You need not
tell them that in a
pinch Jerusalem Artichokes make good flour too.
That'll stay our little
secret.
People eat the Jerusalem Artichoke tubers, birds love the seeds (if the
flowers are allowed to dry on the stalk), and livestock (like
sheep; hence the name "lambchokes") will eat the whole plant.
Pigs will eat the plant and forage for the tubers.
(According to the Seymours, pigs are about the only animal
that
can clean out a field planted in sunchokes and make it ready for the
next crop.) I can attest that rabbits in particular will eat
the
leaves
and stalk before they will eat the much tougher leaves and stalks of
field corn or sweet corn, and will make
short work of the roots (tubers) if they are washed free of the mud
first.
So, if Jerusalem Artichokes are so easy, how do you raise
them in the garden? Here's how I do it.
The first step, as usual, is to figure out what
variety to sow and where to get them. But before we
get there, let's take a short look at the natural history of the plant.
Helianthus
tuberosus Compositae.
Helianthus
tuberosus L. (Asteraceae)
Part of the Asteraceae or Compositae (aster, sunflower)
family, the
Jerusalem Artichoke is a perennial herb that is native to
North
America and goes by many names: e.g.,
Sunchoke, Sunroot, Lambchoke, Topinambur, Girasol, Girasole, or
Gerasole.
There are
many vegetatively propagated types, but no true (well-defined)
cultivars. Some of the most common types are:
'Fuseau',
'Jerusalem White', Veitch's Improved Long White', 'Sutton's New White',
'Mammoth French White' and 'French White Improved'. The
Jerusalem
Artichoke is listed by the UN as a "famine food" and was eaten by
Native American tribes. For a full description and
propagation
information from the extension service, see the following Purdue
Jerusalem Artichoke pages: Center for New Crops and Plants Products,
Alternative Field Crops Manual.
Where
to buy Jerusalem Artichokes:
I bought my
first Jerusalem Artichokes from Jung Seed
and Nursery last year from their online catalog.
There is no indication in the catalog as to what type they
are. I purchased 3 lbs for $14.95 (+$5.00 shipping), but I
see that the cost has gone up this year (2008) to $16.95. At
that rate, maybe I should sell a few tubers next year! For
other nurseries that carry Jerusalem Artichokes, see the Tumbledown Farm Garden Resources page
for links.
Planting
Jerusalem Artichokes:
When to Plant
Jerusalem Artichokes
Plant tubers (or fairly large pieces of tubers, the size of a golf ball
or hen's egg or bigger, with three or more knobs or eyes) either in the
fall or
spring. Plant them soon after you receive them from the
nursery or seed catalog--or very soon after you dig them up yourself
from a previous planting. (Last year I planted with good
results in very early
spring.) The usual advice applies to early spring plantings,
do it "as soon as the ground can be worked." (But in central Indiana,
you have to weigh that against waiting until May!) The books and guides
will tell you to plant
in fertile soil that has been dug or cultivated to a depth of
6"-8". But I ask you, what "weed" needs such TLC?
Sure, you'll get much bigger yields that way, but part of the
fun of planting Jerusalem Artichokes is their "carefree" cultivation.
Why pamper a plant that will grow in almost any soil?
If it will grow in Alaska and Mexico--in rocks, sand,
clay--and everywhere in between, and if it will grow in full sun or
partial shade, dry or moist, why prepare a special bed, except to
prove that you can grow more and larger sunchokes than your neighbor?
(Is your neighbor even growing sunchokes?)
Last year I cultivated and amended the soil
with peat moss and the like. When the plants reach 12" high
or so, I cultivated lightly with a hoe and mounded the dirt up around
the stalks to provide extra stability later on. (When the
plant gets tall, it acts like a wind magnet and will get blown
horizontal. In high wind areas, you may even need to do some
staking to keep them upright.)
This year I am experimenting with a different method for planting
sunchokes. I am
using a bulb planter to take plugs out of the sod, dropping tubers into
the hole at a depth of 4" and filling the hole with soil, topped with a
layer of compost. Later, when the plants are a foot high or
so I'll begin to increase the depth of the mulch, smothering out the
grass and other weeds. Stay tuned, I'll let you know how the
experiment progresses.
If you are new to Jerusalem Artichokes, by all means you should prepare
the ground sufficiently. If you have other, less intensive,
methods that have worked for you, let me know and I'll post them here.
The bottom line is that you plant sunchokes like you would plant
potatoes.
Seeding Rate: How
Many Sunchokes to Plant
Tubers are usually 2"-4" long and 1
1/2" in diameter. The standard advice is to plant one
tuber or partial tuber per foot (1' spacing). If
planting more than one
row, make the rows three feet (3') apart. That will be
sufficient to allow the plants to shade the rows and keep the weeds
out. Last year I
planted one row, approximately 12'-15' (with
a few left over to plant in experimental spots) with
the 3 lbs I purchased from Jung and--after a summer of severe
drought--was rewarded with a 5 gallon bucket full of tubers when I dug
on the first day of spring 2008.
(I did not dig thoroughly, so I
probably missed 1/3 to 1/2 of the tubers.)
Planting Depth
for Jerusalem Artichokes
Standard
advice, again, is to plant 4"-5" deep, in furrows. (This year
I
am trying the "bulb planting" method outlined above.)
Remember, Sunchokes reach a height of 6'-10'. They are big
plants, so plant them where they'll not attract attention.
Harvesting Jerusalem Artichokes
Perhaps the best thing about Sunchokes in Indiana is that you can leave
them in the ground over winter. But you can begin harvesting
as early as 16 weeks after planting. Best thing is to begin
digging a few of them
up with a digging fork (spading fork, a shovel will be more likely to
cut tubers in half and split them) as you need them in fall
after the first heavy frosts and light freezes occur and you'll be able
to eat them throughout the
winter. (Keep a mulch over them to make it easier to dig.)
They are best preserved in the ground, so leave them
there until you need them. Their thin skin will
cause them to shrivel if not kept moist. You can dig
them all up, as I did this
year, on the first day of spring in order to make way for the next
crop. Or, if you planted them in an out of the way place,
just let them multiply where they are.
Some planting guides recommend cutting the tops to 5' high in late
summer, but if you do that you sacrifice the flower. Why take
away the one beauty mark on an otherwise ugly plant? (OK, if
your only concern is yield and keeping the stalks from blowing over,
sure, cut it back.) If you wait until frost, cut the stems
back nearly to ground level, but leave a short (4" or so) stalk to
guide your digging later in winter and early spring.
Jerusalem
Artichoke Pests and Diseases:
The only real problem you may have is how to keep it from
spreading too far and wide!
Insects
There are very few insects that cause any problem with Sunchokes.
It is attacked by a variety of stalk borers, grubs, slugs,
mites, and the like, but it is so hardy and fast growing that few pests
can harm it significantly.
Diseases
White mold can cause early wilt and rot. The best
preventative and cure is a rotation with small grains or corn.
Downy mildew, rust and blight are also possible, but again
the plant is so hardy (a "weed") that they usually are insignificant,
not even reducing the yield of tubers by much.
Water
and Temperature
Requirements for Jerusalem Artichokes:
As already mentioned, Sunchokes grow
wherever corn can be grown, and then some. They are
native to the central parts of North America (the U.S.)--sometimes even
being viewed as a "weed" (an undesired plant out of place).
They require about 125 frost free days. They can be
grown in a wide variety of soils and do not require much in the way of
pampering. They thrive on 50" of precipitation per
year and can make do with less. They need moisture most in
September-November, when tubers are being produced. Jerusalem
Artichokes do not like to be waterlogged. If it gets
extremely hot and dry they will also do less well, so some
watering is useful in a very long drought (like summer 2007 in the
Southeast and parts of the Midwest). Optimum temperature is
65-80 degrees F. They do not do as well in heavy, unamended
clay, as they do in a good loam, but as the bucketful above makes
clear, even in the heaviest clay they'll make do passably.
What else would you expect of a "weed"?
Nutrients
and pH:
Jerusalem Artichokes tolerate a wide
range of pH (4.5-8.2), but do better in slightly alkaline soil.
(For that Tumbledown Farm at 7.9 is almost perfect.)
Those who use chemical fertilizers may want to use ( 4-8-4 or
4-12-4) at a rate that yields 1 1/2-2 oz per square yard of Nitrogen in
annual replacement nutrients. (Best bet in such cases is to
get a soil test.)
If planted in rotation with a legume, there may be
little need for fertilizer other than a little bone meal.
How to Cook Jerusalem Artichokes:
There are many Sunchoke recipes available on the web, so I'll not list
a whole bunch of recipes here. If you've never eaten a
Jerusalem artichoke, suffice it to say that you cannot go far wrong by
preparing it like you would a potato. Sunchokes are more
versatile than potatoes in that you can also eat them raw; slice a few
like you would carrots for texture in a salad. Add them to
your favorite stir-fry recipe and you'll have a great substitute for
water chestnuts. The taste is not as bland as the taste of
potatoes, so expect a slightly sweeter taste (think parsnips and
turnips). All that having been said, here's my favorite
recipe so far (it's simple):
Roasted Sunchokes Recipe
2 lbs Jerusalem artichokes
Garlic
Expressions (marinade)
Salt, pepper and other seasonings to taste
1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
2. Peel Jerusalem artichokes and cut them into the size of
large scallops or large 'tater tots (a little smaller than a golf
ball). Place in a single layer in the bottom of a large
baking dish. Drizzle with Garlic Expressions (or your
favorite oil/garlic/vinegar marinade). Toss until
the Sunchokes are covered in the marinade. Add other seasoning to
taste. (I like more fresh ground black pepper, sometimes a little
dry oregano and the like.)
3. Bake until tender, tossing every 10-15 minutes.
This is a variation on one of the Sam Cooks Jerusalem artichoke recipes.
Jerusalem Artichoke Bibliography:
The American Horticultural Society, American
Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening
, "Jerusalem
artichokes (Helianthus
tuberosus), p. 351
Purdue Extension Alternative Field Crops
Manual, "Helianthus tuberosus L."
Purdue Extension Handbook of Energy Crops,
"Helianthus tuberosus L." (For
large farming operations, but also yields some useful info for
gardeners.)
Rodale's
All-New Encyclopedia
of Organic Gardening. "Jerusalem artichoke," p. 355.
Copyright © 2008 by Tumbledown Farm
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