Helianthus tuberosus. Jerusalem artichokes may also be known as sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple, and topinambour. Not related to artichokes, and not really from Jerusalem. The Jerusalem artichoke is native to North America, and has helped French Canadian settlers survive the winter. These are a perennial root crop, a truly hardy and remarkably productive plant to grow your own patch of carefree side dish. The plants are used for their tender potato-like tubers. Tubers can be harvested in the fall (like potatoes) or anytime in the spring as soon as you can dig the ground. To extend the harvest, add a thick layer of mulch after the first frost, to keep the ground from freezing and allowing harvest for a few more weeks in the fall. Tubers are hardy to zone 3. Tubers can be eaten raw, boiled or roasted (like a potato), steamed, or lacto-fermented. Note that sunchokes contain inulin - a carbohydrate that does not cause a spike in blood sugar. However, this very same inulin cannot be digested directly in the gut, but is instead broken down by bacteria in the colon. This can cause flatulence and, in some people, gastric pain. Fermentation of the tubers helps with both issues, and results in a tasty form of sunchoke preparation.This plant is very productive, yielding 40-55 lbs of tubers from a 10x10 ft plot. The foliage dies to the ground every winter. In the fall, the stalks will produce brilliantly yellow flowers in October. The plants reproduce by tubers, and the flowers are not needed for plant survival or patch expansion. Before planting - beware that these plants are extremely hard to eradicate. They will come back from tiny slivers of tubers. Select a patch out of the way (these plants are very tall - growing to 4-9 ft in height), and mow around the patch to control the plants. Do not till to avoid a population explosion. Plants can be used to form an attractive summer-time windbreak or privacy screen.Price is for 1 lbs of tubers (4-8 tubers depending on size).
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