The easiest to grow, starchy
vegetable is the Jerusalem Artichoke. This vigorous
relative of sunflower, tobacco, tomato, and potato is a
member of the Nightshade family. It is raised to
produce eatable roots. It is started from root
cuttings, like potatoes, and forms tubers in the
fall.
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A sunny site, with sandy or
humus soil should be chosen for a permanent
bed. Barriers like a driveway or stone wall
prevent it from taking over a large area. It
will spread out in all directions from each and
every root. |
Your first harvest can begin after
the tops die back for winter. Dig in spots scattered
throughout the bed. The tubers are sort of knobby and
skinless, and you will recognize them as being like
what you planted. They keep best right in the ground,
and can be dug anytime it is not frozen. To get your
bed established, you may need a thin layer of mulch
over the whole area for the first year or two. Soon the
tops will provide that by themselves. For a large
harvest, you should be feeding the soil by adding some
composted manure or fertilizer in the spring. For a
winter harvest, protect a strip in the bed from
freezing by adding a thick layer of mulch. Move the
strip each year so that the roots will fill back
in.
Jerusalem Artichokes can survive
with no attention for many years, awaiting your need to
eat them. That makes it ideal for establishing a bed at
your summer cabin or retreat location. I will have to
be honest, I like potatoes better. But any food that
grows in permanent beds, requiring little care, is very
good to have around the homestead. Native Americans
grew Jerusalem Artichokes widely in areas where there
is enough rainfall for corn to be grown.
Jerusalem artichokes were also used
by settlers to help in clearing forests into pastures.
They cut off all the trees and brush, and fenced the
area for pigs with some of the drying logs. Then a crop
of Jerusalem artichokes was planted and allowed to grow
for a year. Using iron bars to make holes, ears of dry
corn were driven deep under stumps and rocks, and a
herd of pigs was turned into the field until fall. They
do a wonderful job of digging up, and fertilizing the
whole field. They also loosen up all the stumps and
rocks. The dry logs could then be used for other
things, the rocks made into permanent stone walls, and
the stumps burned. The field is ready to plant
corn.
The reason Jerusalem Artichokes got
the nickname of poor man's potatoes is they can be
harvested with little planning and work. I think real
prosperity always comes from good planning and hard
work.