SUN ROOT, SUNCHOKE, JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE, EARTH ROOT (take your pick)
While doing a google search this morning, I discovered many interesting facts about this native North and Central American tuber. Not only is it far more nutritious than I had thought but its history is full of intrigue.
Native Americans had been using this member of the Sunflower genus as a staple part of their diet long before the establishment of Jamestown on the eastern seaboard of what is now the United States. Settlers soon learned to cultivate this easily grown food and took it back home to Europe where it was enthusiastically co-opted by the ever-experimental French. Europeans still use the Sun Root more than we do and it was one of the foods responsible for saving people during famines.
Sunchokes are a nubbly, ginger root-like tuber that is the underground root system of a type of sunflower. Like other sunflowers, the small yellow blossoms on the 3-10' tall plants, turn their faces toward the sun and follow its arc throughout the day. The roots are attached to the center of the original tuber and radiate outward into a dense mass of tubers connected by sturdy, stiff, cream-colored narrow roots. One starter tuber can amass an impressive amount of mature tubers in one season.
Raw, the sun roots are crisp, crunchy and juicy with a sweet earthy, nutty-flavor. They can be stir-fried, sauteed, roasted, baked and put into soups, breads, salads and other dishes limited only by your imagination. Their cooked texture ranges from water chestnut to baked potato
The easy cultivation of this plant is also its only drawback: it grows like a weed and is best planted in its own area or bed so that it will not take over the garden. Every tiny tuberlet that remains hidden underground will rise the following year and must be weeded out or moved to a select location.
To plant, bury tubers about 4" deep in the soil with preferably near to full sun. It takes them a while to push up the narrow, green, recognizably sunflower shaped leaves on their sturdy stems. Then, just leave them alone through the summer with a nice mulch and regular deep watering. In late summer, if you reside in a windy area like I do, you may want to add some tall stakes with twine to form a wind-proof structure around the clumps because these plants can reach 10' tall in one season and they have been blown over in the late summer's unseasonably early storms we've had the last two years.Some years here, after a wet and cloudy summer, the plants don't bloom but that doesn't affect the root production. After the winter storms have set in, I cut back the stems to about 6" tall just to mark where they are. I also use the stems to help pull them free of the soil when I harvest them.
I find much to love about plants that are effortlessly effusive in producing food. Jerusalem Artichokes store beautifully in the ground all fall, winter and spring. Harvest the roots by digging up the whole clump or whittling away at the tubers from the sides. Here on the Oregon coast, in our sandy soil, I like to leave them in the ground until I need them. They also store well in the refrigerator and though most google sites say they last one or two weeks in the frig, in my experience they last much longer.
Sunchokes have been known for their healing properties and nutritionally, these plants are a treasure trove of iron, potassium, Vitamin C, B-vitamins and more. Sun Roots are an unusual source of vegetable protein, with 3 grams per cup. Diabetics can eat the fresh roots without their usual restrictions regarding carbs as the Sun Root contains Inulin (which can be difficult to digest for some). Apparently, Lewis and Clark, who had to live on these roots during their long journey when other foods where unavailable, complained of flatulence. (Poor dears; at least they didn't have to carry a baby the whole way like their guide).
No comments:
Post a Comment