How to Grow Jerusalem Artichokes

Jerusalem artichokes, or sunchokes, are easy to grow and don't need a lot of extra care. Plant in the spring and harvest in the fall when they begin to die back with the first frosts. They grow vigorously and produce an abundance of tubers. Some people call this invasive, I call it free food. See below for my tips on how to manage your crop so it doesn't get out of hand.

About Jerusalem Artichokes

Jerusalem artichokes, Helianthus tuberosus, are native to North America and belong to the sunflower family. They aren't related to artichokes and didn't originate in Jerusalem, but their edible tubers do have a slight artichokey flavor. They make delicious soups, slice to saute them with mushrooms, or have them raw in salads.
For recipes my see recipe index.

Sunchokes sauteed with mushrooms

How to Plant and Grow Sunchokes

Sunchokes become available in the fall. Check your farmer's market or grocery store for tubers in the fall and winter months and save a few to plant in the spring. I stored about four tubers in a pot on my porch in potting soil over the winter protected from frost. I planted a couple of the tubers in the spring on the sunny side of our house where we had sheet composted to build up the soil over the previous winter.  

They need a sunny spot, regular water and medium quality garden soil.
In spring, plant a few tubers about 2 inches deep and about eight inches apart in loose soil in a sunny spot after all danger of frost is past. Adding mature compost to the soil is a plus.


Start with a modest sized patch, mine is about 1 1/5 feet by 2 feet. We got several pounds from a patch this size!

Water well.  Keep the soil slightly damp and they will begin to sprout. As they grow, water when the soil begins to dry out. They don't need to stay moist and can dry in between watering.

They will grow straight up and may need to be staked. Sprays of multi-branched yellow flowers bloom in August or September.

Jerusalem artichokes grow very tall and flower in late summer

To Harvest

Jerusalem artichokes are frost tender, so they will begin to die back when the frosts begin. When they die back cut the stalks to about 1 foot in height. The tubers become sweeter after exposure to cold temperatures, but you can begin to dig them up and try them right away. Keep them in the ground and dig them up as you need them. If the ground freezes in your region, mulch the tubers well with straw.


To dig them up use your hands or carefully dig with a trowel so that you don't break them up. The broken ones will rot in the ground.

Managing Your Crop: Replanting Jerusalem Artichokes

Jerusalem artichokes can become invasive if you don't manage your planting area. As spring approaches  dig up all of the tubers that you can find. Replant only a few, depending on the size of the crop you want the next fall. In this way you'll keep them under control, otherwise they will spread rapidly and form big mats of tubers! 


My growing area is bordered by bricks to help define the patch. This makes it easier to find them when I want to dig them up.

Before spring is in full swing, dig up all of the tubers and replant only a few

They will even grow under the bricks:

Plan a Gorgeous Heirloom Garden

Imagine what your personal garden might be like if you were the co-founder of Seed Savers Exchange. I had the opportunity to find out recently at a talk given by Diane Ott Whealy at Common Ground Organic Garden Supply and Education Center in Palo Alto, CA. After spending the bulk of her life working hard to build the non-profit Seed Savers Exchange, she now enjoys being a gardener again without the responsibilities of feeding a family and growing an organization.

She maintains a display garden at the Seed Savers headquarters, Heritage Farm, the Whealy’s former home in Decorah Iowa. Her approach is informal and loaded with enthusiasm.

Here are her top tips for creating a beautiful, naturally lush garden with heirlooms:

• Grow vegetables, flowers, and herbs together (interplanting)
• Let annuals reseed themselves for the next season, including vegetables (at least in part of the garden)
• Learn to appreciate each stage of plant growth (lettuce gone to seed is strikingly attractive)
• Plant bulbs (tulips, daffodils, etc.) for spring flowers, then interplant with lettuce for a dramatic effect
• Let a flowering vine intertwine with a less showy plant, for example scarlet runner beans with sweet potatoes

The effect is a lush riot of texture and color with foliage and flowers to attract pollinators, and a feast for the senses. This technique of interplanting and companion planting creates a garden ecosystem that birds and insects love- the birds help control the insect population which will be a mix of beneficial insects as well as pests. Her display garden has about 500 species that include heirloom vegetables, old fashioned flowers and herbs. Some of her favorites are: Grandpa Ott's Morning Glory, Bees Friend (a flower from Germany), Scarlet Runner Bean, Moon and Stars Watermelon, and Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard, among many more.

Ott Whealy explained that the mission of the organization is to inspire people to grow the seeds: Seed Savers Exchange can save seeds but they cannot maintain gardens everywhere, therefore home gardeners are the key to keeping the thousands of useful plant varieties alive as they propagate them and share them with each other.

As she noted:

"the definition of an amateur is one who loves and cares"

You can order seeds directly from Seed Savers Exchange without a membership, or you can join and become part of the network of gardeners who exchange seeds and support the organization and their programs.

This post was also published here: Eat, Drink Better

Photos: Urban Artichoke

Heirloom Bean Project Wrap Up

Growing Heirloom Beans

Last summer I grew several bean varieties for my self-designed heirloom bean trial; my goal was to see which grew best and to choose a few to expand in the next season. I want to grow enough to have dry beans for cooking over the winter. Why the excitement? I think it's fantastic to be able to grow a tasty and healthy protein source in my own suburban back and front yards. Besides that, I love the versatility of cooking with beans, and the varieties are endless if you venture beyond the grocery store.

Home grown: Good Mother Stallard, Cranberry, and Italian Butter beans (left to right)

Bean Trial Results

Now that it’s fall the results are in: a total yield of almost four pounds of beautiful dry beans of several types. That's more than I expected since I didn't grow very many of any one type for my trial. In all I tested seven runner beans and five varieties of common beans.

Runner bean varieties: Scarlet Runner, Ayocote Morado, Ayocote Negro, Alubia Criollo, Cannelini Runner, and Gigandes.

Common beans: Cranberry, Hutterite Soup, Good Mother Stallard, Tiger's Eye, and Hidatsa Shield Figure. 

The seeds came from three sources, Rancho Gordo, Iacopi Farms, or Seed Savers Exchange.

Another motivation for growing some of these is that they are not widely commercially available. You won’t find most of these, if any, in your supermarket. It’s extremely satisfying to be able to propagate them on a small amount of land, my suburban garden for example. I highly value being part of the grassroots movement to grow lesser known food plants to keep them from extinction.

A trellis of  Italian Butter beans attracted many types of pollinators

Favorite Beans to Grow

It's going to be hard to choose only a few types to grow in quantity next summer, but I do have some favorites. We loved the Italian Butter Bean from Iacopi Farms in Half Moon Bay, near the SF Bay Area. Iacopi Farms sell at our farmer’s market every Sunday, and they are the only vendor with dried beans for sale. I grew about 18 plants around two trellises in our front yard, which attracted a lot of bees. It turns out that the vines are beautiful, vigorous, and produce an abundance of long lasting cascading white flowers. I enjoyed telling admiring passersby that these lovely vines were actually bean plants! I harvested almost a pound of dry beans.

Italian Butter beans sauteed in olive oil with fresh corn and garden basil

The cooked beans are creamy and luscious when sauteed in olive oil with freshly cut sweet corn off the cob and fresh garden basil or tarragon. Other favorites are the Hidatsa Shield Figure and Tiger's Eye. These beautiful rare beans have intriguing histories. The Hidatsa Shield Figure bean was grown by the Hidatsa tribe in the Great Plains region, and Tiger's Eye is a new world bean that originated in Argentina or Chile. It's worth expanding the small amount of seeds I got into a bigger crop next year.

But for now, I look forward to enjoying my dry beans well into the winter with tasty satisfying dishes.

Photos by Urban Artichoke

This post published @: EAT, DRINK, BETTER

 

Edible Landscaping in Silicon Valley: Reviving the Valley of Heart's Delight

Technology companies, sprawl and suburbia may have replaced the fields of prune, apricot, cherry and walnut tree orchards that once graced what is now my neighborhood, but local food production is beginning to slowly return to our region. 


Silicon Valley may again one day be referred to as the "Valley of Heart’s Delight”, its former nickname from back when the area's local landscape was dominated by rich, diverse food production and stunning natural beauty.

(To learn more about gardening with edibles see my Gardening Index page, and my Recipe Index page)

 

Edible Landscaping by Example

Last weekend Common Ground's 5th Annual Edible Landscaping Tour featured 10 beautiful and creative home gardens from Menlo Park to Mountain View on the SF Peninsula, all with an emphasis on organically grown vegetables and fruit. 


This popular event continues to attract a growing number of eager attendees ready to learn how to transform their suburban gardens and grow their own food.

Chez TJ's Chef Joey Elenterio and Louise Christy, Master Gardener

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