If you're looking for an easy to grow, prolific crop,
that is delicious and versatile, then try growing Jerusalem Artichokes.
Jerusalem Artichokes are not true artichokes they're related to the sunflower family
and are a perennial sunflower. In some places they call it Sunchoke which actually makes more sense.
They have beautiful yellow flowers in late summer and they grow to around 10 foot tall,
as you can see. The Artichoke tuber is the part of the plant you eat and it grows under the ground
choose a location to grow your Jerusalem artichokes away from the vegetable garden
or pathways as they can be prolific and will take over and grow under paths and you won't be able to
harvest them easily. You'll want a well-drained, sunny position, protected from the winds so they
won't easily fall over. Plant your tubers in late winter or early spring depending on your location,
you want to get them in the ground before it gets too warm. Plant the
tubers 15 centimetres deep that's 6 inches or around 50cm apart that's 20 inches apart.
Even in a small garden, I don't recommend planting them close together,
as you actually get a way better crop when the distance of your plants are further apart.
Like growing all vegetables, they like the water kept up to them in the growing season.
In autumn the flowers die off and the leaves start to brown, the ground starts to bulge up
as the tubers grow. Start harvesting once the plants have died off in late autumn,
all through the winter. If you wait for heavy frost your tubers will be sweeter.
If you live in an area that doesn't get heavy snowfall then you can leave them in the ground,
if it's a well-drained position and you can just use the ground as your root cellar.
One Artichoke plant will yield around two kilograms of artichokes
you do need to make sure you harvest all of the artichokes before the next
season or you'll have a lot of shallow rooted artichokes, close to each other, start growing
and they won't have as much room to grow, they'll be spindly and because
they'll be shallow, they'll easily fall over in the wind when they get taller
storing the Jerusalem artichokes needs to be done fast. Don't leave them out or put them in the
fridge, you need to put them in a good root cellar or in the ground, like I do - leave them there.
They can also be frozen, pickled or fermented. If I were to leave them
in this basket and cover them over with the tea towel, so they were in the dark,
without washing them, they would last about a week and a half in the kitchen.
To freeze them they need to be washed, scrubbed clean and blanched for a minute,
place them in sealed containers or freezer bags and they'll last for about six months. In the
root cellar they'll last about two months if you have optimum conditions in your root cellar.
As I store mine in the ground, I only harvest what I need, when I need them. There are
many ways you can eat Jerusalem artichokes, basically all the ways you can eat potatoes
and you can eat them raw and you don't have to peel them, you just have to scrub them clean
and cut off any black bits or green bits. We like them roasted here and that's what I'm doing today.
They're also good turned into dips, soup and of course like I said pickled and fermented as well.
To roast, I put them on a baking tray and cover them with some butter,
I make sure all the pieces are coated nicely and then I add some herbs and salt
and then they go into the moderate oven until they're ready
Jerusalem artichokes can have side effects in some people due to the inulin that's in the vegetable,
so if you're a beginner then it's best to enjoy them when you're at home alone,
just to get your body used to them, but they're definitely worth growing
and enjoying. Thanks for watching, I'll see you in the next video.