Is anyone growing Chufa/Tiger Nuts? Eating them?

I found some of these in an African market.
I'm entranced by their high fat content, and fodder potential.
Like the nutrients of the tubers are similar to olives, and sedge has been successfully fed to rabbits.

I don't think they are actually the same as yellow nutsedge.
The bags of "chufa" sold for wildlife plots do seem to be cold hardy nutsedge, but I believe real chufa is  actually killed by frost.

Container growing seems like the best way to deal with the long growing times, frost sensitivity, and harvest difficulty.

So anyway, who has experience planting, growing and eating chufa?

I grew chufa last year, and saved the tubers to plant again. I love the flavor of them but didn’t eat many. I hope to try again this year and need to get mine out to plant. Hopefully they aren’t moldy. Thank you for reminding me!

As I recall I planted after frost and harvested in fall, like potatoes.

M Ljin, that's very exiting!
Did you wait for the tops to die before harvesting?

I don’t remember exactly. I think some before, the rest after.

grew them in 4 large tubs in my tunnel --they did very well and multiplied from a 6 corms in each tub-- quickly filled each tub---they need the  warmth ---tried them outside --i am west coast ireland---but they grew slow and died off eventually----but ----big problem for me ---rats ---love them and dug up and ate every single one over a night or two ---i didnt cop on as the tops were still green for awhile..  ---so next attempt is mesh cage over the tubs

The die back that M Ljin witnessed has me convinced at  that domesticated chufa won't be invasive like regular yellow nutsedge.
At the same time, their success growing chufa in a zone 5 reassures that me my zone 6 has enough growing days to produce a yield.

I have some "buss tubs" (from the restaurant industry).
They are about 5 inch deep, is that enough for growing chufa?
If not, I have barrels, half barrels , buckets and totes...

I would like to let them go to seed, collect the greens for hay and the seed for food/fodder/ next year's crop.

Wild chufa grows here too and also dies back. They’re sedges and neither turned to mush. But I still wouldn’t count on garden chufa being winter hardy.

I wish I could get the domestic ones to flower and try crossing the two…

I also think I planted them late, so you’ll in all likelihood be fine.

I grew some a couple of years back in containers and they did well enough, though I found the harvest fiddly - lots of tiny tubers to sift out of the compost. The flavour is good, kind of nutty and slightly sweet. Tony's point about rats is worth taking seriously, mine were in a raised bed and something definitely had a go at them before I got to harvest.

M Ljin wrote: I wish I could get the domestic ones to flower and try crossing the two…

Oh, are they like potatoes in this way?
No flowers means no seeds and greatly reduced invasiveness.
(I know potatoes can produce flowers and even viable seeds, but normally don't).
No seeds makes selecting for new traits tricky, but the reports I've seen on garlic make me think it's entirely doable.

How hungry are these plants?
I'm wondering if they could be raised in sand, for ease of harvest.