JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE

The first thing that anyone learns about Jerusalem artichokes is that they have nothing at all to do with Jerusalem; the second thing is that they're not an artichoke and hence have nothing at all in common with the 'globe' variety.

These are in fact a member of the sunflower family -- girasole in Italian, which is the origin of the name. In their original North American homeland, they're known as the sunchoke (or the sunroot) -- the artichoke part of the name, somewhat unconvincingly is down to them being edible tubers.

They're both knotty -- resembling ginger more than anything else -- and nutty. You can eat them raw, when they have a crisp taste, or peel and boil them. Some cooks find this too much effort in large volumes, and a nice compromise is to mash a few boiled artichokes into potato for a slightly different taste. They also create a rather nice and nutty-flavoured soup, for which we provide a recipe -- just click above!

They're easy to grow -- and almost impossible to stop growing! You need to do nothing except plant them, but over time the quality deteriorates and they need to be uprooted and replanted in fresh soil -- the snag being that even the smallest of pieces left in the ground will grow again, leading many gardners to view them as little better than a weed.

The portion above ground is an exceptionally good wind-break, leading to the saying that the Jerusalem artichoke is good at wind-breaking and at breaking wind -- their reputation for causing flatulence is legendary!

 

 

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