Jerusalem Artichokes / Sunchokes in Missoula

Do you have' em? We want to get our hands on some to plant on our property.

Send me and e-mail if you have any info!

rorympage@gmail.com

I bought some at the Clark Fork Organics (or was it Bitterroot Organics?) stand at the Clarkfork Market near the Higgins street bridge a couple weekends ago. I ate about half of them and planeted the rest. I am interested in seeing how they do in my semi xerascaped front yard.

Can ya'll tell me what these are?

Hey thanks for the market info!


Jerusalem artichokes also known as sunchokes, are awesome because:

they are low maintenance
they grow in most places
they are a perennial
they are edible raw or cooked
and are crispy!
they're tall (great if you want some privacy)
High yielding
and have pretty flowers

Paul has a great video on them here:


They look like this:

How do you eat and or cook them? Like Okra?

Great video! I DO eat mine raw for fun sometimes, as well as cooked, and, I also hadn't heard that one should cook them long and slow for more nutrient... Does anyone have a recipe for that?

Best!

L.

were you referring to bitteroot flower shop S Carlson?

im gonna be traveling through missoula in a week or so and wouldnt mind picking some up on the way home to plant when i get there...

For more on sunchokes, Paul Wheaton has written a blog about them in Make it Missoula: http://www.makeitmissoula.com/2012/10/paul-wheaton-benefits-of-growing-sunchokes/

S Carlson wrote:I bought some at the Clark Fork Organics (or was it Bitterroot Organics?) stand at the Clarkfork Market near the Higgins street bridge a couple weekends ago. I ate about half of them and planeted the rest. I am interested in seeing how they do in my semi xerascaped front yard.

I have been meaning to thank you for this info. I practically bought them (Bitterroot Organics, not the Bitterroot flower shop) out at the last market. They are funny looking buggers, check them out:

If people want some to taste or for seed, I bought ONE pound of sunchokes at Whole Foods in San Jose last spring, and planted them. When we moved out here (Stevensville) in November, I dug them all at once, and put 'em in buckets of sand, where they've been storing most happily in our garage. That one pound of sunchokes gave us at LEAST 75 pounds when I dug them up--and, much as we love "fartichokes", I can spare a few pounds. Once you've planted them the first time, unless you get every last crumb of root out of the ground (which takes pigs), they'll be back in the spring.

By the way, any recipe you use for potatoes will do for sunchokes. Our favorite is to chop 'em up and fry 'em with onions in bacon grease or butter, depending on availability. But they're great roasted, baked, in soups, etc. Just be aware that some folks nickname them "fartichokes" for good reason.

Sitting here reading through the thread... thinking "fartichoke" the whole time.... LOL

On that note, I've had pretty good luck with cooking them for a LONG time.
This seems to cut down significantly on their "melodious effect".

My favorite is to roast them in a dutch oven, or slow cooker with a roast or chicken, other root veggies and garlic.
Then I take out all of the roasted veggies and mash them all up together.
It's like mashed potatoes only much better.

Heather, I am down in Hamilton, and would love to get some sunchokes if you still have some to spare!

They are simply divine in a kimchi....I jut planted a few hundred of them in out'o'the way places on my chunk of land...

I was in Hamilton yesterday! I can spare a pound or two, yet. I'm in Stevensville, and you can holler at me if you're up this way, or I'm planning to take the kids to a homeschoolers' park day in Hamilton Friday, and could bring some with me.

IMHO, the best part about them is that the flowers smell like candy corn! Nobody ever says that.

I'd sure like to get my hands on some Sunchokes.  Who carries them in Missoula now?

Renate Howard wrote:IMHO, the best part about them is that the flowers smell like candy corn!  Nobody ever says that.

I need a different variety of sunchokes or something! Mine never bloom even though they've gotten 10 feet tall. I want candy corn smelling flowers!

Jesse Fister wrote:I'd sure like to get my hands on some Sunchokes.  Who carries them in Missoula now?

Jesse did you ever get sunchokes? We could give you some!

That would be great.  I planted a bunch last fall but I think the pocket gophers got to most of them.  Only five plants seem to have made it.

Please tell Evan and the boys who helped me with my hügelbeds that their inoculated mushroom logs will be ready this weekend and they can come pick them up.

One thing about them is they are very good for diabetics.  So are dandelions.  They help control it.
I find it very interesting that one certain company likes to spray the dandelion on sidewalks and yards. Pesky medicinal weeds.....hmm...plus you can make a wine from it. I haven't yet but I will I hope soon.
Anyhow,  I would love to get my hands on some of the artichokes.  Anyone have some that they don't need or would like to trade out for some other plant?

During the Great Depression there were lots of folks out of work, out of home and out of food. We run a museum, and I hear many stories of folks who lived through those times. Not long ago a lady told me about how in those days her family used to sit up all night on the porch holding a shot gun protecting the apple orchard. If (actually when) the world goes sideways again like back then, farms may again become very popular destinations for folks on the road. One solution to raising food and keeping food, from being shared by people you didn't give permission to share, is to plant fewer obvious plants that everyone knows like tomatoes and cabbage, and plant more edible landscape. There are lots of varieties of berries people don't recognize, fruits they don't know to eat, roots that they have no idea of. One of the best of these is the great tasting and nutritious Jerusalem Artichoke. It's great to eat in normal times, it could be even better in hungry times. They spread well on their own, grow themselves, and taste a bit like a cross between potatoes and turnips. Eat them fresh and raw, boil them in water or steam them, they're always good.

I'm on my second set of Jerusalem Artichokes. I suspect voles eliminated the first set which came from a CSA share my parents got but I guess my dad is allergic.

Anyhow I got a second set from Oikos. Seed grown the tubers are neat at least 4 distinct strains but the plants refuse to bloom! I'm about an hour north of Missoula.

William Schlegel wrote: the plants refuse to bloom!

The first of season sunroot flower opened in my garden today. Most of the patch is still weeks away from flowering.

this video shows some sunchokes in stevensville



Of course, helen isn't there anymore.  The point is:  harvesting sunchokes all winter near missoula.

And now I realize that that is the exact same video that rory already put up.

I should update that thumbnail.