Central West Virginia's Guide To Life

ONLY ORGANIC
By Sue Cosgrove

11/07 - Sunchokes

Native to North America, Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also called "sunchoke," is a tall, perennial member of the sunflower family. Growing from 4 to 12 feet tall with many 2-3" yellow daisy-like flowers that bloom in late summer and early fall, the sunchoke needs little care with regard to its growing needs. However, great care must be taken where the gardener plants it for, like other 'carefree' plants, sunchoke needs no encouragement to overrun its boundaries.

Sunchoke's positive attributes far outweigh its negatives, its chief value lying in the ample production of tubers or fleshy roots that look like small, knobby, thin-skinned white potatoes. After a couple of hard frosts in the fall, dig under the tall dead stems for the tubers, taking just the amount needed for a couple of meals.

The best storage place for sunchokes is right in the ground; if the ground freezes solid in the winter making it impossible to dig, toss 6-10" of mulch over the bed before it freezes to keep the soil moveable. Tubers not dug during winter will produce plants again in the spring.

Sunchokes taste slightly sweet and mild, with a nut-like flavor. An excellent source of iron, they also provide caro-tenes, potassium, calcium, B-vitamins and magnesium. About half of its dry weight is made up of inulin, a long-chain starch composed of fructose molecules.

Because of the unavailability of this starch to the human body, raw or lightly cooked sunchokes have long been recommended for a diabetic diet. However, the human digestive system lacks the enzymes needed to break down inulin into usable sugars and so sunchokes may cause intestinal distress with much flatulence.

The good news is that inulin dissolves in hot water and when roasted for a long time, the flesh turns brown and jellylike, with a sweet flavor indicating that the inulin has broken down into digestible simple sugars. A long period of cold storage also will convert the inulin in the tubers into fructose. Add lemon juice when cooking sunchokes in water or the high iron content will cause the tubers to turn black.

According to Sally Fallon in Nourishing Traditions - The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, " . . . diabetics [or anyone!] can still enjoy properly prepared Jerusalem artichokes by mixing them with plenty of butter or cream, so that absorption of simple sugars into the bloodstream occurs gradually."

Want to know more? Want to grow or eat organic sunchokes? Contact Steve Gormezano at 577-6785, or email holycowfarm@mountain.net.

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