Helianthus Species, Jerusalem Artichoke, Sunchoke, Sunroot

On Jun 25, 2018, FlaineClark from Du Bois, PA wrote:

If you plan where to grow them and plan to keep them contained by regular mowing, you won't have any trouble with them. I have three varieties.
White Stampede I got mail order a few years ago. They grow about 5' tall with flowers that smell like chocolate and are tender enough to toss in salads. They taste much like the raw root.
A feral Fuseau(?) I found in the woods near here. These grow to 12' tall with a white, smooth carrot-like root, easy to clean. They do give off some odor which the others don't when cooked from raw, but when dried, they cook up without any odor. A friend in Tasmania remembers her mother cooking with these and smelling up their kitchen! These also have a growing season that's a good 3 to 4 weeks longer than the white Stampede and the red ones so I do... read moren't know how well they'd grow in the far north with shorter growing seasons.
A red Stampede look-alike that I found in a very small flower bed in town. I only got three tubers last year and divided them for the first time last fall. They grow about 5' tall like the Stampede.
I have no trouble with any of them falling or blowing over. I have a mulcher/chipper that I put the stalks through for mulch that I work back into the soil as I dig them up. The soil in the oldest patch is loosening up wonderfully!
I boiled 3 quarts of the flowers last fall and made a straight flower wine, just sugar and a few raisins for natural yeast, no citrus or other flavors. It took 3 months to work off. I still have it aging, now about 5 months. Its for sure not a fruity wine. Earthy, full flavored, something to get used to for a drinking wine. Not bad, just very-very different. I'm betting it'll make a great cooking wine. When I boiled them I knew they smelled very familiar. When my wife walked in the door she asked why I was cooking squash. Ah Ha! That's what they smelled like!
We've canned the roots as canned potatoes, Bread-n-Butter pickles and Taco relish. All so very good! I tried fermenting them like sauerkraut ... That was a bust. They were musty, nasty. If I try again, I'll use much more salt.
I've spread them around some more, so this fall I'll harvest much more and we'll try many other pickle and relish recipes as well as some others for regular canning.
As others have mentioned, when you first start eating them, go slow and easy. They may give you horrendous gas until your gut flora become balanced. There is evidence that a regular diet of Sunchokes will correctly balance the gut flora which may ease symptoms of IBS, Crohn's, Leaky Gut, GERD, Diverticulitis and some other gut maladies, but only if they're caused by SIBO - Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.
A Doctor Nemechek, in Arizona has developed a protocol that uses the inulin starch of Sunchokes or Chicory or Agave along with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and good grade Fish Oil, all over the counter goods to treat Autism and other Autonomic Nervous System disorders which are caused by acids, chemicals and fats out of balance due to the guts being out of balance. Its all worth looking into. Web search 'Nemechek Protocol' and 'SIBO'.

On Sep 10, 2014, lancer23 from San Francisco, CA wrote:

I grew it because its a pretty expensive item at the farmer's market.
It's so easy to grow that it choke out my flower bed and everything around it.
I got a big crop every yr and I try to dig them up and plant something else but it still comes back yr after yr.
Its suppose to be good for you. But I've tried many different recipe but still haven't got use to the taste. Its a lot of work to take the sand/soil out of the cracks, nooks and cranny of the tuber. I don't like eating the soil that's hard to clean off.
I've tried to put into soups and roast them in the oven too. Stir fly them until they still have a little crisp in them. Roasting taste best because the flavor is sweeter.

On May 12, 2013, SteveOh from Cherry Grove, OH (Zone 6b) wrote:

Very tall (10' is typical), thick stemmed (2") and prolific in the right environment, this plant is not particularly attractive (just my opinion of course) and can be extraordinarily invasive.

We grow them as a food source and the tubers are quite delicious, we often harvest two buckets full of tubers from a single plant. Tubers range from thumb-sized to larger than your hand and several pounds, all are edible.

If you have never eaten sunchokes, start slowly and let your body adjust, they have a very beneficial effect on gut flora but can cause gas and bloating until your body adjusts. Since the tubers are quite delicious, many people over do it initially. Trust me, unless you are already accustomed to a high inulin diet, proceed slowly. I suggest no mor... read moree than 1-2 golf ball sized pieces at first. Later, you can eat all you like.

We planted only once and even though we are diligent in our harvesting the plants always return to provide a crop in the next year. Tubers can often be found 2-3' from the plant, so expect spreading unless you contain them. They will sprout from small bits of root as well as from the tubers themselves.

They can be controlled by mowing or hand weeding but you will need to be persistent to control them. I suggest containment at least 2' deep, we use aluminum sheet.

On Jun 5, 2012, Hikaro_Takayama from Fayetteville, PA (Zone 6b) wrote:

I boutght one pound of Jerusalem Artichoke tubers through Jung's Nursery seed catalog (along with some Egyptian Onions), and planted them in 2009. They all came up, and flourished with almost no care, despite our record-breaking drought that year.

This past Thanksgiving, I dug up a 1.5 square foot section of my Jerusalem artichoke patch and got at least 1 lb of useable tubers (I put all the "seed potato"-sized ones back), and baked them in the oven like baked potatoes. They taste like an exact blend of regular potatoes and sweet potatoes.

The plants themselves are trouble-free and can be used to fill in a weedy area and provide pretty flowers as a bonus in late summer. I'm definitely taking a few with me when I move in the next month or so.

On Jul 4, 2010, nicholtammy from Huntsville,
Canada wrote:

Its kinda taking over a friends garden but not really choking stuff out it brings shade to the other plants the grass is a problem we cannot get rid of

On May 16, 2009, Lavaux from Lavaux,
Switzerland wrote:

Sunchoke (topinambur) is a prized veggie in France that also grows well near Lake Geneva, Switzerland (climate zone approx. 8b). Planted tubers bought in a supermarket (probably Fuseau) and others bought in a nursery (Sakhalinsky Rouge) in March/April in fertile, unamended but fertilized loam on a south-facing slope with full sun. They are going gangbusters - already 1 1/2 feet high by mid-May. So far, no unmanageable pest problems despite the numerous white grubs and wire worms populating my patch of dirt.

Culinary note: When roasted, sunchokes taste like artichokes; no joke. A tasty but simple feast is easily prepared by cutting potatoes, peeled sunchokes and carrots (country fry wedges), coating them lightly with olive oil and sprinkling them with chopped rosemary (or or... read moreegano), salt and pepper, and then popping them in the oven at 200 C on a baking tray for an hour together with a whole chicken (with skin) on a roasting tray coated lightly with olive oil and stuffed with one rosemary sprig (plus a few short sprigs of thyme, if desired), 2 quartered garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, ditto salt and pepper. This recipe is my family's favorite.

Enjoy.

On Oct 13, 2007, maccionoadha from Halifax, MA (Zone 6a) wrote:

I love this plant. I grow it in a raised bed as part of a chocolate scent garden. The blossoms have a vanilla/chocolate scent. They taste like a combination of potato, carrot, water chestnut; eaten raw or cooked like potatoes.

Here is how it got it's name.

Jerusalem: This name comes from when the plant was brought to Italy (circa 1633) and the Italians called it 'Girasole' meaning 'Turning to the Sun'.

Artichoke: The name comes from Samuel de Champlain, who after tasting it, likened it's flavor to that of the artichoke.

On Jul 18, 2004, GSFriend from Little Falls, NJ wrote:

I didn't come to Jerusalem artichoke as a gardener -- although I am now interested in that. I looked to add it to my diet because the inulin, whether it helps with diabetes or not, seems clearly to foster the growth of the system's benign bacteria. The system's bacteria grow in an atmosphere of little or no oxygen. They generally grow only inside the system. Yogurt does not provide this type of bacteria, although it does provide types of beneficial bacteria that grow in an environment that has oxygen.

I had a type of deficiency of systemic bacteria.

Eating the Jerusalem artichoke tubers seems to address this deficiency quite well.

FYI, I have so far boiled the tubers like potatoes and I have sauteed them with onion and garlic in olive oil. I t... read morehen flavor it with soy sauce.

So if they grow to prolifically in your garder, eat 'em up!

On Sep 28, 2003, gonedutch from Fairport, NY wrote:

This is a great plant for a privacy blind. But do not use it for the back of the border for it will invade the garden. Some Sunchokes in my garden are 11 feet tall so that I have to bend the stem to harvest the 12/15-flower clusters for a field bouquet. Add some lavender Obedience Plant(Physostegia)flowers, white and/or lavender Windflower (Japanese Anemone, some Asters and Goldenrod (Solidago) for a colorful fall bouquet!

On Jul 5, 2003, legry wrote:

Hi! I have not a jerusalem artichoke yet, but I like to have it. Please, may somebody send me plant?

On Sep 3, 2001, poppysue from Westbrook, ME (Zone 5a) wrote:

This perennial sunflower is a Native to SE US and Canada. It can be seen growing wild in meadows and along roadsides. Plants grow up to 10 feet tall and have course oblong shaped leaves covered with stiff hairs. In late summer it is covered with 4 inch golden yellow daisies. The tuberous rhizomes can be dug in the fall, cooked and eaten like a potato. It spreads rapidly and may be too aggressive for the home garden. Plant it in an area of its own where it can be controlled with the lawn mower