# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Gardening >  sunchokes

## randyt

I've been wanting to plant some jeruselem artichokes for some time now. So I been googling for some tubers and found several sources. On a fluke I stopped at a farm supply located in a nearby town, just for giggles to see if they had tubers. They had a bunch for $2.00 a pound, it's a better price than the online sources. On the plus side, the tubers are locally grown. So now I'm ready to johnny appleseed some sunchokes.

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## grrlscout

Nice score!

I bought two kinds from my local fancy grocery store last year, and got a nice little harvest from them.

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I left the itty bitty ones in the ground, and they are just now starting to sprout again.

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## randyt

those look good, I haven't had artichokes in umteen million years or so it seems LOL. I'm going to plant several plots around my stomping grounds.

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## Rick

You all know they are terribly invasive, right?

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## grrlscout

And that they are not at all artichokes?

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## randyt

I planted some years ago and they didn't take. I think the winters may be too hard on them.

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## randyt

jerusulum artichokes. I think the term sunchoke came about in the 1960's to sound better in the grocery store.

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## Rick

Or from Jerusalem.

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## wareagle69

Randyt
The winters are not hard on them. I have a plot on my property been growing for about four years never a problem and I am in northern Ontario

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## cowgirlup

I planted  a bunch of them last year but only a few came up.  When I dug up the tubers they seemed OK but just didn't grow. I was hoping after they wintered over they would all pop up. So far nothing and I see some mole holes out there.

 :Frown:

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## Winnie

I've grown them in the past, never had any trouble getting them to grow and they make a great wind break. Oh and in the Winnie household, they are known a Fartichokes. :Blushing:

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## mountainmark

> You all know they are terribly invasive, right?


Invasive? Depends on your definition. They certainly can take over an area, and once you plant them it's hard to get rid of them. However they are also quite native.

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## hunter63

Had some here in the clay soil, and were very invasive, ended up digging them up...tried some at "The Place", but never took...of course I really never planted them, so I suppose the deer ate them.

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## wildlearner

I'm growing some right now. I'm also growing goats-beard, I'm in a tuber mood lately... I'm actually hoping they're invasive because I HATE having to buy seeds and starts (I'm no good at saving seeds, lack of experience).

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## LowKey

Which goats beard? There are several totally different plants that go by that common name. Not all of them edible.
As for invasive, sunchokes are as good at it as bamboo. Last yeaar was the first time I grew them. Got the starts at a local farm coop way cheaper than you can get in seed catalogs.  The roots were small and being sold on the cheap as no one wante to buy them to eat. I grow mine in a metal walled bin (kinda like a low compost bin) on top of a weed block cloth and keep the flower heads cut off. To harvest I transferred the soil to a new bin on weed block. They still escaped.

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## Willie

What part of the sun choke do you eat? What do they taste like?

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## hunter63

If you get them pealed and coked are like a bland potato...and are used as a no or low starch potato substitute.
Also taste like a water chestnut  (like in Chinese food?) when raw.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke

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## Solar Geek

When we were vegetarian we ate them. Really no flavor to speak of and very boring no matter how many spices I put on them.

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## hunter63

....Yeah but fun to peel...if you have nothing better to do....LOL

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## LowKey

I just dug up a big bunch of chokes.
They're small this year. No rain.
(the things in the background are Medlars.)

IMG_0839.jpg

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## kaze

I recently learn about these.  I hear they are a good food source for Native Americans back in the day.   Curious to try some.

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## LowKey

Have a look around your local farmers market or Whole Paycheck Foods late August to early October and you'll probably find them.
Winnie isn't kidding about the Fartichoke name. They don't bother me but a couple members of the family here reported "intestinal distress" upon eating some. Start with a few and if you are lucky enough to be able to digest em, have at it. 

I learned a long time ago not to plant things I don't want to eat. No sense wasting the yard space or the garden space. These things grow 8' tall and spread like wildfire. Finally figured out how mine escaped. Squirrel was helping himself to some of the roots that I replanted for the next season, and burying them like acorns around the yard.

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## hunter63

> Have a look around your local farmers market or Whole Paycheck Foods late August to early October and you'll probably find them.
> Winnie isn't kidding about the Fartichoke name. They don't bother me but a couple members of the family here reported "intestinal distress" upon eating some. Start with a few and if you are lucky enough to be able to digest em, have at it. 
> 
> I learned a long time ago not to plant things I don't want to eat. No sense wasting the yard space or the garden space. These things grow 8' tall and spread like wildfire. Finally figured out how mine escaped. Squirrel was helping himself to some of the roots that I replanted for the next season, and burying them like acorns around the yard.


LOL...Yup....
Funny part of the fartichokes...they are supposed to better than potatoes for diabetics....but...
Quote>
This can cause flatulence and, in some cases, gastric pain. Gerard's Herbal, printed in 1621, quotes the English planter John Goodyer on Jerusalem artichokes:[16]
Quote>
 which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men.<quote...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke

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