Jerusalem Artichoke as fodder

these were growing in clay soil, but with a substantial humus component.

Our goats love the foliage.  Never tried giving them the tubers, too hard to scrub clean enough for them, but the chickens love them.  So do we, after I found a really good recipe.  Chop cleanly scrubbed tubers into inch pieces.  Chop carrots the same size.  Saute the carrots in a bit of olive oil about 8 to 10 minutes.  Add the Jer. Art., sprinkle with salt, thyme and ginger (not much), and simmer until your sunchokes are tender and breaking apart.  Delicious and when I take it to a covered dish dinner, everyone raves about it and every bite disappears quickly.  I've heard that digging them after a good, hard frost, lessens the gaseous effects.  The ginger helps that too.

The Cherokees in North Carolina at one time ate the greens of the sunchokes.  I tried them, but it must be a cultivated taste.  I did not care for it.  Perhaps if I had picked them when very tiny it would have been better.

I sometimes dry some of the tops for hay, especially when they have invaded part of my garden I don't want them in.  I just break off the tops and throw them in a pile to dry later and then dig out the roots and throw them into the chicken paddock. 

I grew some in California. It was hot, hot in the summer and cold in the winter. They did require some watering but they grew fine there otherwise.

I’ve grown Jerusalem Artichokes (Stampede variety) for many years for fodder and for the tubers.  Just have a small patch, but I keep it well mulched, which it likes and it produces a lot of nice, large tubers which I sell at farmer’s market for $5. Per lb.  I dry the forage tops (also prune and dry when they are about 4 feet high because it makes them bunch and grow larger plants).   The goats love the tops, they are high protein and nutritious.   So do the wild deer and some years they raid it so much no tops are left.  It amazes me how much protein is in a lot of plants, tree leaves, etc., that we normally don’t even think of as fodder plants.  The tubers are delicious if you dig after a hard frost.  I scrub them, do not peel, and chop into chunks after trimming off any bad parts (that goes to the pig or chickens), and cook in coconut oil, as a stir fry with sliced carrots, add salt, thyme and lots of ginger and it will soon be everyone’s favorite vegetable dish.  

I'm looking for some large tubers if anyone has any available.  Thanks all.

Emil Spoerri wrote:I am going to respond to the questions posted about goats with a new thread.

I’d love to read the new article.