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| Jerusalem artichokes. Ohio State University |
What looks like a sunflower, grows like potato, tastes like water chestnuts, and comes back every spring? We've been growing Jerusalem artichokes in the Children's Garden and dug up the edible tubers this week.
Don't be misled by the name: Jerusalem artichokes aren't from Jerusalem and they're not artichokes. The plant is closely related and similar to the familiar sunflower, with a tall stalk and bright yellow composite flowers. The name seems to have its origins in a corruption of the Italian word for sunflower; and Champlain, the French explorer of the early 1600s, recorded that they tasted like artichokes.
Jerusalem artichokes are an original North American plant. Native Americans cultivated the plant and shared it with early explorers and colonists who sent it home to Europe. Calling it the sunroot, it was an important winter food source for Native Americans throughout the central plains and eastern woodlands. The plant's tubers are harvested after the first frost and through early winter, a time when few vegetables are available to those living off the land. In Europe, the Jerusalem artichoke, also known as the Canada potato, became a part of French and Italian cuisine beginning in the 1600s.
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| Jerusalem artichoke tubers. J. Schaeffer |
