Jerusalem Artichokes from Yumheart Gardens – Amazon Item of the Day
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Item of the day is Jerusalem Artichokes from Yumheart Gardens. There are many sellers of Jerusalem Artichokes on Amazon but I have bought several varieties from this one and have been quite pleased with the results.
This is a plant I just think everyone should grow! They are amazingly productive and talk about a plant you can grow almost anywhere they are hardy from USDA Zone 4A all the way up to Zone 9B.
I have been fermenting them in salt brine for a few years now and I have to say it was my favorite way to make them so far. You can see the very simple recipe in the PS below. Let me tell you how my affinity for this plant began though. All the way back in 2013 we we first moved to Nine Mile Farm a listener sent me 4 of them in a bag with a damp paper towel. He said simply cut them in to 2-4 pieces each, make sure each piece has a nodule or two, stick them in the ground, make sure they get water and stand back.
I cut them into 10 pieces and planted them into a 10’x4′ small hugel bed. That fall I harvested 4 five gallon buckets of them, what was left in the ground filled the bed with no replanting in 2014. That year though I changed the purpose of that bed, it was also the last thing the big flock of chickens ruined before being gotten rid of and fully switching to ducks.
The following I didn’t grow any, and simply harvested a few random survivors that survived the bed conversion and the ravages of the chickens. The fact that such survivors exist says something about this plant.
Since then I have tried a few varieties and a few sources, this one just seems like the best bang for the buck to me. They don’t seem to be a specific variety, but they are low cost and grow very large. Priced at under 10 bucks a pound, they are a great deal but shipping is 7.48 so call it roughly 18 bucks all in. You are going to pay higher shipping on items like this because they are coming from independent sellers on Amazon (read that small businesses) who have to charge a bit more. I find this fair enough and like to support entrepreneurs as you know.
The way to look at this though is you buy them once, if you make sure to hold over a few tubers each year for insurance, you never have to buy them again. I also want to say I recommend a very cool red variety from this seller last year and they did well for me as well. However, one listener bought them and was disappointed when she weighed them because they were about an ounce light of a full pound or something like that.
I would imagine that these are picked and packaged and ready to ship, it is quite reasonable that they could dry out a bit and be an ounce or two shy. My view is so the heck what! Again I planted 4 tubers cut into 10 pieces and got four 5-gallon buckets of harvest.
So please consider planting them as a very productive and sustainable food crop this year. And as I said there are a lot of options on Amazon, but I have purchased several items from this seller and always been happy. So consider planting Jerusalem Artichokes from Yumheart Gardens in your garden this year.
Also note you will see an option of 3 for 7.99 that is three tubers, vs. a pound. It is plenty to get started but for 2 bucks more you get a HELL OF A LOT MORE. Even if you don’t plant them you can gift them or just eat them. Hence I would spend the extra 2 dollars.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
P.S. – Here is my basic recipie for fermented chokes. It is very simple, wash them well to remove all dirt and cut into pieces about as big as say a carrot stick, put them into your fermentation vessel of choice. I do mine in jars and really like both Masontops and FermentEm products for doing so.
Add about 10 Black Peppercorns and two cloves of garlic peeled as well. Cover with basic brine and weight down to keep under brine. Ferment for about 7-10 days then store in fridge to slow fermentation.
They are crisp, a bit sweet and awesome! They also don’t make you um, “gassy” if fermented. For basic brine use 1/2 cup of salt to the gallon of water. Adjust to the amount you need.
P.S.S. – The best way to store them hands down is in a ziplock bag. Put them into said bag and add a wad of damp (not wet just damp) paper towels and refrigerate and they will store for many months. The bottom drawer is the best spot. If you store them long enough they may begin to sprout, if so you can just remove the sprouts and eat them or plant them and they will grow out again for you.
Check Out this Video When I am Growing them In a Wicking Bed as Part of a Multi Crop Strategy.
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I have been growing Jerusalem Artichokes for over 40 years. I did not realize there were various varieties and suspect what I have been growing would perhaps not do as well in Texas as they do here in Vermont, and vise versa.
I find them excellent raw or lightly stir fried with other vegetables.
Wow… I just bought and had Jerusalem Artichokes for the first time (well apparently since I was one year of age).
Cabbage has no claim against Sunchokes. I am not sure how I managed to create that much gas. Seriously, I think it was 12 hours in which every 30 seconds a gaseous release occurred. Though with minimal odor, thank God.
They were delicious. Both a bite raw was tasty. And fried, they were like potatoes with a hint of ginger and a touch of a garlic.
Is it evil of me to want to cook this and serve this to a large crowd of people unwittingly during an overnight weekend.
Do I need to protect these from the deer that seem to graze on everything I plant?
I can’t be 100% on this but about the only thing the deer didn’t eat on me in Arkansas was these. The tops are really hairy, not something I figure anything wants to eat. They are a lot like wild form sunflower, they are even in the same family. I figure if a deer does eat them, it must not have much else to chose from. That said depending on how big the issues is the youngest shoots could be a target in the first week or so of growth.
I had deer nibble three or four tops of a 4’x 8′ foot bunch when they were about 4′ tall but never came back for more. I’m guessing that it was a young deer that just gave it a try.
I love Jerusalem artichokes roasted with other veggies in the fall. They have a great nutty flavor. Up here in Canada, we can leave them in the ground through the winter, and then harvest in the spring just after the ground thaws.
Alternatively, you can cut the stems in the fall about 2 feet above the ground and mulch heavily. In early winter before the ground freezes, but after the snow falls, you can use the stem to show you where they are and dig up what you need. Note that the Queen’s favorite soup is Jerusalem Artichoke soup.
I also look at them as a an apocalyptic survival food. You could have hundreds of pounds of JA tubers in the ground on your property, but roving masses of hungry people would just walk by them without having a clue what they are, and just leave them there, while pulling up your potatoes or picking your beans.