Guess what..
Can you guess what this is (without hovering over it with your mouse)?
Hint: it’s not ginger.
Answer – and recipe – in the next episode.
Oh, and if you are the first person to guess right, I am happy to send you some (US only, please… but not to AK; AZ; CA nor HI ). Then again… if you guess right, you may grow it and want no extras…???
Jerusalem artichokes!!! (Sunchokes) I just ate a great soup made with them. Yum!
I see someone beat me to the punch, but i recognize them too as Jerusalem artichokes. By the way, i love ginger, too, and found on a cruise that it really did help settle my stomach.
Oy I hate those things! Okay “hate” is a strong word but I think I am mildly allergic to them: the whole mouth-scratchy thing that happens. I am just so glad that happened to me before I decided to plant them. Knowing how crazy my horseradish has gone, I can only imagine what the sunchokes would do.
You want some horseradish, Sylvie?
would love to have some planted in the garden. but we have plans to reorganize and turn the kitchen garden into more of a landscape. definitely want them, perennial vegetables are a good thing
OK, Mar, I am happy to send you a tuber or two (as long as you are in the US and not in AK; AZ; CA nor HI. Be warned of its very vigorous habit (see my response to Ed)
Ed: definitively productive. I planted 6 tubers last March, I would say they were 3 to 4 oz each. I dug one plant and collected 7.5 pounds of sunchokes. That’s at least a 1 to 30 yield for a very carefree plant! But I can see why you’d want to make sure you dig them up and only leave a few for the following year’s crop. Otherwise you will have more than you ever want! I am guessing I have a couple of more weeks of being able to dig them before they start sending shoots up (and could have dug them throughout the winter as long as the ground was not frozen). From a landscaping prospective, mine went well over 7 feet tall, toppled off actually because they were so tall (but you could lopped them off, and some sources suggest you do for bigger tubers). They are pretty, in a big blowzy weedy kind of way, like Joe-Pye-Weed.
Paula. Ginger is know remedy for upset stomach, either a tea (use fresh, not tea bag if at all possible) or candied ginger, a fav here (even without any digestion question). If you like ginger, try to grow it. It’s wonderful.
El: do you cook them or eat them raw? I have seen reference to eating them raw, but I cooked them. As far as horseradish… let me see if the roots that were given to me last spring, and that I planted in a pot (not being sure of where exactly of where I wanted the patch to be yet) survived this winter! Maybe those two should be planted together and be left to fight it out!
Oh, I cooked them alright. I really liked their taste too (it was a gratin if I recall). Do check your horseradish: I will gladly send you a couple of roots. But knowing how indestructible these things are yours are probably fine!
Dear Sylvie,
Thank you for your kind offer; I am flattered. It turns out that we may be relocating soon -we are changing continents!- so I don’t think I will be able to plant them after all. Perhaps you would like to donate them to a local community garden or school -or the second person who guessed.
Thanks so much for your blog!
Paula? you want some? Mar is running away to another continent – no less – so she does not have to plant them. Such is the power of sunchokes.
Best wishes for your relocation, Mar.
Ha ha ha ha no worries, I am planning to plant grapes -and some sunchokes too if they grow well in southern europe!
Hi Sylvie. I’d love to have some sunchokes! (Thanks, mar…have a safe move!) About horseradish…phew, do be careful planting it. My ex-bf’s parents lived in New Hampshire, which is infamous for its rocky soil and harsh winters…and a few horseradish roots managed to take over most of a field! And because the soil was so rocky, it was really hard to dig up the darn tubers to get rid of them or use them.
I’ll give ginger a try! I’m crazy about candied ginger, and do like the delicate ginger shoots.
Good! I’ll contact you privately Paula. Glad to spread the bounty of this pretty North American perennial.
I admit I thought it was ginger. I’ve heard of but have never tried sunchokes. Now you have me curious. I’ll have to see if the Whole Foods near me has them. I know my local grocery store won’t. They barely even have what I consider the basics…
There are couple of similar roots besides ginger, one is Turmaric (haldi) and the other one is Sundh or Sundh in Punjabi (sorry, do not know the English name), but has bitterness like horseradish or wasabi.