Imagine a field of multibranching sunflowers, bright as butterscotch, drowsing in the September sun. In the ground below, Helianthus tuberosus, the sunchoke, also known as the Jerusalem artichoke, grows sweet as the days shorten. It is neither an artichoke, nor from Jerusalem, but is a root vegetable, similar in texture to jícama or water chestnuts.
Sunchokes look a bit like ginger root. Raw, sunchokes are perfect for salads and snacking, with a crisp texture and sweet, nutty flavor. Cooked, sunchokes are sometimes used as a potato substitute. They purée to a velvety smoothness for soups. Roasted, their nutty flavor intensifies and blends well with other fall vegetables.
At the Maplewood Farmers’ Market, Brett Palmier of Biver Farms held a small sunchoke, turning it in his hand. “Sixteen inches down on rain and none in sight,” he said. “These sunchokes are small, but they still have some growing to do. If it rains, we’ll have plenty to sell. If it doesn’t …” His voice trailed off.
A customer asked if he was holding fresh ginger. “No,” he said, “this is a little Jerusalem artichoke, known as a sunchoke.” His enthusiastic description persuaded the customer to try them. “Just steam them, add a little olive oil, salt and pepper,” he advised.
Kate Theis was the only shopper to recognize sunchokes at the Biver Farms stand. “I inherited sunchokes,” the Dogtown resident said. “They came with my yard.” Theis likes to eat them fresh from the garden, out of hand. She keeps a sharp knife when she harvests sunchokes to “pull, peel and eat them” right from the ground.
Even with the drought, Palmier will have sunchokes, but maybe not in the quantity of past years. “We’ll have them at the markets, and for our CSA [consumer-supported agriculture] customers, starting in September,” he said.
Palmier likes the gaudy Helianthus tuberosus both for its sunny flowers and good eating, but he respects its reputation as an invasive species and plants accordingly. “No way these are getting loose in my fields.” Rather, he grows them in plain sight of the main packing house on the farm. “No ‘out of sight, out of mind’ for sunchokes,” he said.
Home growers, take note: “If you grow sunchokes, or any invasive, be sure to be very, very careful,” said Valerie Vartanian, from the Nature Conservancy’s Global Invasive Species Initiative at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The plants reproduce both from seed and from tubers. “Harvest the tubers,” she said. “Ideally, plant them in containers, or raised beds, so the tubers can’t get away.” She recommended cutting the flowers before they go to seed. “Like any invasive, securely wrap the flower heads so the seed doesn’t get loose in a landfill. Throw them in the trash, not the compost pile.”
Don’t leave them for the compost pile. My guess is you won’t have any trouble enjoying this unusual vegetable.
This article appears in Sep 1-30, 2006.