The other night I gave a lecture on native plants for a class in a local Sustainable Agriculture program. While the focus was on using native plants to attract pollinators, the species that generated the most interest was Helianthus tuberosus, the Jerusalem artichoke. A native perennial in the Sunflower genus of the Aster family, it is also known as sunchokes. Native Americans were growing the plant in cultivation for its tubers when European settlers arrived. It is a very easy plant to grow, and it self-seeds quite readily. This makes for low overhead, unless you don’t want plants walking across your garden. If Helianthus tuberosus is allowed to set unchecked, it can be more costly in time for weed management when not grown for food production. Still, if you plant it as part of a pollinator garden or broader farmscape management plan to improve habitat for beneficial insects, its ease of propagation is a positive characteristic.
Jerusalem Artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus
I had known about sunchokes for a while but never had the occasion to try it until about three years ago. La Residence in Chapel Hill featured it in a Valentine’s Day menu as a puree in a larger dish. The rest of the dish escapes me now because I was so interested in the new experience of how this root tasted. Of course, everything tastes wonderful with butter and garlic.
The next time I ran into sunchokes, my friend Bobby Tucker of Okfuskee Farm brought his new fall harvest to the farmers market. I had no idea what to do with it, so he told me to just roast it in the oven. Sadly, I didn’t have a clue how fast it would cook through, so they didn’t turn out that well. Bobby had more the next week, and I tried slicing them with carrots in a sauté and olive oil. That worked quite nicely, and it brought out a floral note in the roots that I hadn’t expected. Of course, everything tastes wonderful cooked in extra virgin olive oil.
Sunchokes quickly became my new favorite vegetable. Unfortunately, I also realized how quickly I got tired of peeling the small tubers. Since the outer layer is so thin, I decided to just scrub everything really well and trim off any brown blemishes, tossing rough chunks into a pot of water and boiling them like potatoes. This took only about 15 minutes, when they were fork-tender. Then, I simply prepared them like mashed potatoes. What a snap to prepare! I’ll have to take a picture next time. I can’t wait until they come in season again. Now that more growers are interested in sunchokes for their gardens and farms, I hope to have a steady supply of this delicious root vegetable next year in my kitchen.
Culture Dash:
The name Helianthus tuberosus is well suited due to its notable tuber. The common names have less clear etymologies. The term “Jerusalem artichoke” is listed widely across the internet as a derivation from folk etymology, the erroneous retelling of the history for words and terms. Term “sunchokes” showed up much later, along with “sun chokes”, “sun roots”, and “topinambour”. Sunchokes are a low glycemic alternative to white potatoes and well-suited to diabetic menus.
More Links:
The web site SamCooks.com does a nice write up on the history of the many names for Jerusalem artichokes.
The list of native plants in the southeast has been revised in Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, by Alan S. Weakley (2011). It is available online and in hard copy from the UNC Herbarium.
When I think of mashed anything in the kitchen, I always have to sing “(Do The) Instant Mash” from Look Sharp!, the 1979 album by Joe Jackson. I couldn’t find any original video of this song, only covers.
For an interesting look at preserving ethnobotanical culture and history, visit Oaxaca Cultural Navigator for a write up on the fabulous Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca (the official page is not yet translated in English).
– A Dash of Culture
Where Every Story Has Food and Every Food Has a Story.™
