The Mighty Jerusalem Artichoke
Jerusalem artichoke tubers harvested and ready for eating.
On my self sufficiency gardening journey, I’ve been searching for different plants that would allow me to grow food easily with very little effort with plentiful harvests. The plant to take that number one spot has to be the mighty Jerusalem artichoke!
Helianthus tuberosus better known as Jerusalem artichokes is a plant native to North America. To be exact, the eastern and central portions of the United States. Other common names it goes by is sunchokes, sunroot, earth apple, topinambur, and wild sunflower. That’s right, it’s not actually an artichoke nor is it from Jerusalem! It’s part of the sunflower family and it’s a tuber that grows below the ground that produces lovely bright yellow flowers during the summer. It also grows in USDA hardiness zones 3-9 so most people should be able to grow it themselves. They can be harvested any time once the plant starts turning brown in the fall and the ground isn’t fully frozen. They don’t last long out of the ground so they should be used as soon as possible or they will go soft and be unusable.
These giant plants can reach 6-12 feet with ease and can easily spread by the tubers below the ground expanding outwards. They also easily come back from tiny fragments even if you harvest every last tuber you can see which is both a blessing and curse if you’re not careful. I have them planted by a 6 foot fence and mow around it to keep the plants contained where I want them.
Jerusalem artichoke in bloom with it’s abundant lovely flowers.
When planting Jerusalem artichokes, it is rather easy and straight forward. They like moist soil that is soft and full sun but they can still perform well a bit outside of their preferred conditions. I planted them in hard clay with only a handful of compost in each of the planting holes and they did wonderful their first year regardless. They were planted in spring or fall about four inches deep and about a foot apart from one another. Another important thing to do is make sure they are watered in for their first week or two so they can start getting established.
I will give a word of caution to those that want to try this wonderful tuber is that they can cause gastrointestinal problems due to the fiber known as inulin. Not to be confused with insulin, inulin is a plant fiber that your gut fauna loves but your body itself will have a hard time processing on it’s own. So it makes for a great prebiotic for gut health but it can lead to it’s other famous nickname, fartichokes. It can cause flatulence as well as cramping if you eat too much at one time. Some ways around it would be to boil them with lemon juice or to lacto-ferment them into pickles before consumption.
They can be consumed raw or cooked and will have varying differences in flavor. In general they have a starchy nutty flavor. I personally like to boil or roast them but I know there are others that like to slice it up in a salad. I feel cooking them brings out their sweetness and are much more enjoyable in my opinion.
They may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I don’t think I will go without growing this amazingly abundant crop again. I love simplicities and this plant is perfect for myself and I hope they could be for you too!
