Sunchokes
(Helianthus tuberosus)
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Cultivars
(This vegetable is still most commonly called Jerusalem Artichoke, a confusing misnomer, as they have zero connection with either Jerusalem or artichokes.
The better name sunchokes, adopted by supermarkets as a marketing tool, is the one we will use here; "sunroot"--which their commercial growers push--is a still better name, but
one not yet seen much.)
These tuberous little delights--very nearly a great vegetable--are far too little-known. They have a mild, nut-like taste that works well sliced raw into salads, sautéed in a
little butter, roasted, or--their apotheosis--in cream of sunchoke soup. (Sidebar: Washington State is one of the leading American commercial producing areas for sunchokes.)
They require, and well deserve, a permanent home in the garden, because once planted they are essentially impossible to extirpate (though not actually invasive). We have set aside for
them an area outside the garden proper (they produce tall, willowy, not unattractive plants). They don't require fine garden soil--in many areas, they grow wild as "weeds" (naturally,
they were a staple food of native peoples). If you want to pinch pennies, you needn't buy sunchokes from a seedsman--buy some at your local grocery when they appear, cut 'em up, and plant
'em.) You can leave them in the ground right through winter, digging some as needed--they are hardy to -50 degrees (one expert source says "Jerusalem artichokes are
available year round, but are at their sweetest from fall through winter").
One source claims that there are today perhaps 200 "types" of sunchoke (presumably meaning cultivars). The 2007 Seed Savers Yearbook shows 37 types offered, including a generic
"Jerusalem Artichoke". Nonetheless, by no means do all seedsmen even carry sunchokes, and, of those that do, few name a variety. While all types probably grow comparably, at
least in home-gardening terms, and presumably have much the same culinary quality, the distinguishing point for cultivars is smoothness, for the older sorts are very knobby (looking a lot
like ginger) and correspondingly a nuisance to peel, though it is by no means clear that they need peeling for most uses; there are now a few types that are quite smooth, and thus perhaps
more desireable. (One source said that "some say [the smooth types aren't] as flavorful as knobbier types", but we did not find any such comment anywhere else.)
(The last couple of seasons, our region has been invaded by voles--previously almost unknown hereabouts--and they utterly destroyed our sunchoke crop. By
planting time this fall, we will have un underground fence (down to perhaps 12 to 18 inches deep), plus a modest surface fence, and hope that those will work.)
Cultivar choice is important, because barring catastrophes (such as a vole invasion), what you plant is likely what you'll have forever. Since we use these things a lot (when we have
them), we really want one of those smooth, easily peeled sorts, which lets out the common variety Stampede. More nearly smooth-skinned, and available to home gardeners, are the types
Fuseau and Red Fuseau (apparently common, perhaps the commonest, in France), and--our choice--Clearwater; its description, from the reliable co-op seedsman Fedco (or,
strictly speaking, their tubers division, Moose Tubers) says "Will Bonsall of Scatterseed Project, the Seed Savers Exchange curator for sunchokes, has the largest known sunchoke
collection. Clearwater is one of his favorites, which he collected near his backyard. Smooth tubers are crisp and tasty, with white skin and white flesh." The first sentence is
certainly true, the second very probably so, and the third we take on trust. But it's a shame how many commercial varieties (the Columbia looks very promising) are utterly unknwon to the
seedsmen's catalogues.
Planting
You normally plant once for a lifetime. Planting is rarely if ever of true seed, but rather of cut-up bits of "seed" tuber.
Timing
Plant your seed tubers about as early in the spring as you can: later planting means a lot fewer and smaller tubers. For once, "as early as you can work the soil" really means what it
says. Or you can plant them in the autumn and wait till next year to harvest your first crop.
The Bed
Sunchokes are amazingly tolerant of all sorts of poor conditions, but really must have full sun (consider their name and botany). Still, it helps not only them but you--since you have
to dig the bed well to harvest them--to initially make the bed as friable as possible, mixing in lots of organic matter and, if necessary, actual sand as you deep-dig it.
Planting Out
Cut the tubers you receive from your seedsman into small pieces; be sure each has at least one and preferably two "eyes" (like potato "eyes") on it. Do not allow your seed
tubers to dry out before you plant them. You will probably get an average of a dozen seed-tuber pieces from a pound ordered, so order accordingly--if you want to be really conservative,
figure on 8 pieces the pound (which would make an average seed-piece weight of 2 ounces, a figure some sources mention).
If you have dug the bed deeply and amended the soil--if necessary--with some organic matter so it is not terribly heavy, plant at a spacing of 15 inches. Some sources suggest planting
at a depth of 3 to 4 inches, but in well-dug soil set the seed-tuber bits 6 inches down. It is said that they can come up from as deep as 12 inches, but why press?
Growing
Water the bed well but occasionally: perhaps once or, in summer, twice a week.
At the outset, while the plants are emerging and are still small, weed scrupulously, but not too deeply. When once well into growth, sunchokes compete very well, and you can let the
bed go to weed if you're lazy, but as seedlings they are vulnerable.
Let the plants go. If you want to harvest a few early tubers, you can, but they'll be small. In the fall, as late as possible before the ground freezes so hard that digging is a
chore, dig up your tuber harvest; be sure to wait till at least after the first hard freeze or two, because--as with many root crops--sunchokes' flavor is improved by a freeze or two.
Alternatively, you can leave the tubers in the ground right through the winter, then dig them up as soon as the ground unfreezes enough in spring: some suggest that the tubers taste even
better after fully overwintering.
As with potatoes or other deep root crops, take care when digging not to damage your crop. You will have to dig pretty extensively, both vertically and horozontally, to find all the
tubers (which is why it's nice to have really friable soil). When you're as sure as you can be that you have found all the tubers for a given plant, leave a small piece--about the same
size you originally planted out--in the hole at that original 6-inch depth, then fill in the hole. You have now both harvested your current crop and planted your next season's crop.
It is said that you can expect from 2 to 5 pounds of tubers from each plant. Under ideal conditions--31° to 32° F. and 90% to 95% humidity--sunchokes can be kept for months;
but in the refrigerator within days they go soft and become unattractive for any fresh use where their crispness is wanted. So use a few right away for any fresh use you want, such as
salads, and cook up the rest for freezing (they make a superb cream soup).
Sunchokes are occasionally, and wrongly, described as "invasive". They do not invade--that is, spread beyond their planting--but within their planting they are nearly ineradicable, for
the very least bit of tuber left below ground will invariably sprout a new plant in spring. If, for some reason, you feel a need to wipe out your planting (as, for example, to relocate
the bed), about the only reliable way is the long-term method: ruthlessly mow down every sunchoke plant as it appears, wait a season, and repeat, till no more come up.
More
Relevant Links
Besides any links presented above on this page, the following ought to be especially helpful.
Odds and Ends
Biology
Sunchokes are another member of the useful Asteraceae family, the asters (formerly the Compositae), which also includes the lettuces and many lettuce-like plants; they are
closely related to sunflowers.
History
The ancestral sunchoke evolved along the eastern seaboard of North America, from the Gulf north up to Nova Scotia. Samuel de Champlain encountered sunchokes growing in a Native
American vegetable garden on what is now Cape Cod in 1605; he thought they tasted like artichokes, and the name apparently stuck. Native Americans called them sun roots; they are one of
the many new-world foods the European settlers were given by the natives, and quickly became a colonial staple.
Once introduced to Europe, the tubers became popular there too. They were soon being sold in Paris, under the name topinambours, tubers. (Six Brazillian Indians from the
so-called Topinambours tribe had been brought back to France in 1613, and the tuber's name was taken from them.)
When cultivation of the plant had spread to Italy, arriving sometime before 1633, the Italians dubbed it the girasole, the "turn [gyre] to the sun [sol]" plant. It is
generally believed that girasole was corrupted to "Jerusalem", the "artichoke" part coming from Champlain's early and ill-conceived comparison.
Sunchoke cultivation reached England in 1617, and Germany by 1632. An early edition of the Oxford English Dictionary mentioned "Artichocks of Jerusalem" in 1620.
Since their original flush of success in Europe, sunchokes have had an up-and-down history; it has been more down than up, owing to the immense popularity and success of that other
new-world import, the potato, the two competing, basically, as a source of dietary starch. But the sunchoke persists, and at times has new flares of popularity.
In recent years, there has been commercial interest in sunchokes as a possible source of distilled fuel (alcohol-like); that interest included one of the century's larger >pyramid-scheme frauds--involving sunchoke seed tubers--which took in many farmers.
Envoi
Sunchokes' carbohydrate content is entirely inulin (not insulin), and they are thus supposedly safe for diabetics to eat (but in many people inulin can cause some flatulence).
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