Celebrating Jerusalem Artichokes
It's that time of year again- time to celebrate the good old Jerusalem Artichokes!
Year after year they just do their own thing- they appear in spring as fresh new growth and start to fill the borders nicely- crowding out grass - and pretty much anything else that gets in their way.
Then over the summer months they grow huge- 2 to 3 metres easy. Come autumn they produce the lovely bright yellow flowers.
And well, we know what happens next - they flop down untidily all over the place and the humans have to weave and wind their way around them.
Yep. I really love Jerusalem Artichokes.
The key thing with them is to plant them where you want them- it would be a bit daft to make a feature of them in your lovely tidy vege garden- because they will take over, and you will spend many hours trying to sift through the soil to make sure you've got every single Jerusalem Artichoke tuber there is- because if you miss one you know darn well you will be doing the same thing same time next year!
Getting real though- they are a real gift in the Food Forest. We've got room to spread out here, and the Jerusalem Artichokes have got their own places to enjoy life.
So why do we grow them? First off- there are the edible tubers. Ready to be baked, roasted, grated, or souped (is that a word?). And alright, they are a bit tough on the digestion! Still yummy though. Next, you can make a fragrant tea with the fresh flower petals. And finally- to my mind one of the best uses of them- those big tall bodies that I mentioned earlier- they make the best bio-mass ever. The satisfying feeling of chopping them up - often with my bare hands- and spreading them around the Food Forest floor is hard to beat. Instant mulch.
Definitely celebrating Jerusalem Artichokes around here!
