Discovering What to Grow

Discovering Jerusalem Artichoke.

The name Jerusalem artichoke is somewhat misleading. It is not an artichoke and it did not come from Jerusalem. Many consider the name to be a corruption of the Italian “Griasole Articiocco”, meaning sunflower artichoke. Commonly it is referred to as “sunchoke”.

Sunchoke is a perennial plant that reproduces by seed and by fleshy rhizomes that bear small, potato-like tubers similar to ginger roots. It grows wild along river and stream banks, and in most meadows and valleys throughout Ontario. Its exceptional capacity to produce biomass makes it one of the most promising new crops in North America to address environmental issues, such as carbon sequestration and phytoremediation.

The rhizomes produce tubers which vary in size and shape from small, round and knobby to long, slender and smooth. The tubers may vary in colour from white to pink or red. The cultivated strains of sunchoke produce large tubers and shorter, thicker stems than the wild types.

Our neighbour farmer gave us some tubers three years ago. At first I thought I would grow it as a wind fence for my vegetable garden but then more I learned about this plant the more excited I got.

It is very easy to grow sunchoke because it literally grows like a weed and yields a lot of tubers.

Tubers are currently marketed in Ontario as a health food product. They contain inulin (up to 20 percent), a polysaccharide recommended at one time as a sugar easily digested by diabetics. Inulin tastes sweeter than sugar and is easily metabolized by humans without adverse effects of high blood sugar. Jerusalem artichoke flour is recommended for people allergic to wheat and other grains.

Sunchokes are rich in potassium, protein, fiber, calcium and folacin

You can make a lot of delicious dishes from sunchoke; you can eat it raw, steam it, bake it, stir fry it or boil it.