Forgotten survival food: Sunchokes
Posted by deleted_by_reddit@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 3 comments
So about 3 years ago, I started growing Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem Artichokes.
We have a thriving Texas suburban prepper backyard, with annual peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, kale, etc. I decided to try out this forgotten tuber food that the Native Americans cultivated.
First warning: Plant them in a segregated area. They are a VERY prolific plant, and will take over any area where they can uncontrollably spread. We have a raised bed area in the backyard that I used, about 12 feet wide by 3 feet deep. Worked out great to this day.
Second: Be careful what you plant with them. Tomatoes did fine, side by side. Beans as well. Peppers and onions, not so much.
Our annual yield, for the last two years, has literally been two five gallon buckets of edible tubers. More than we can eat - we give the extras to local folks who want to try Sunchokes.
The tubers, at harvest, resemble weird, twisted ginseng or ginger roots. That said, the flavor is pretty dang good. A cross between potato and artichoke, kinda buttery all by itself. You can eat them raw, but we usually cook them, because... well, raw Sunchoke is gonna make you fart. A lot. Like, blow the bedcovers off. We found you can mitigate and lessen this effect by cooking them in butter. I have, for the last few years, cooked them by slicing them thin, adding some butter, garlic, and cream, and making "Sunchoke scalloped potatoes." Big fan fave at our gatherings.
They're high calorie, high in potassium and vitamins. Perfect survival crop. Grow like the dickens. They're a sunflower variant, so the stalks DO grow high, covered in flowers that attract bees and other pollinators to your garden. The last two years, the bushes of Sunchokes got about 8 feet tall, covered in flowers. But it appears that the taller they grow, the more tubers you get at harvest.
You can find more about them online, including ordering a seed tuber or 5. Definitely a crop that survival prepper types need to check out. They're Perennial and hardy as shit. Even if you THINK you got all the tubers out, at harvest, they'll come back again the next year. Highly recommended.
ObsessiveVoidKitten@reddit
I just can't stand the flavor. No matter what cultivar or recipe I try they always taste like crayons smell to me.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit (OP)
Someone messaged me with this question:
Very. Our potato patch, which we've had for more than a decade, has nothing on Sunchokes. I put the Chokes in the 12 x 3 area, and they took the fuck over. In like, the first year. We tried to get all of them out last year, and they still grew back in giant bushes of flowers. And, at harvest, another 10 gallons of tubers. Edible, nutritious, tubers, but still way more than my prepper household of four people can reasonably eat soon.
Online stories from others tell the nightmare of planting these in an unfettered area. Five planted tubers can, in a year, take over an acre. Removing them requires harvesting, then tilling the soil down a full foot, and spreading weed killer. DO NOT plant this crop in an unregulated area of soil. It will take over everything. Many other crops won't thrive near Sunchokes. But we did find that tomatoes get along with them, and beans like to climb the Choke stalks.
[edit] That's one of the great things about them: They keep a REALLY LONG TIME, even stored in plastic buckets at air temp. I've eaten Sunchokes that had been in a plastic bucket for 7 months, and all they did was shrink a little bit. No other prep. And they were still delicious.
TimelyShoulder2257@reddit
Five tubers taking over an acre in a year is an EXTREME exaggeration. They aren't nearly that aggressive. If you want to contain them, just chop down any new shoots that pop up where you don't want them.