Our Sunchokes

This past week has brought us some cold days. Our first frost, a hard frost, snow, and low temperature down around 17 F. There are rumors of some warm weather on the weekend -- maybe a chance to do some clean-up. At least the snow didn't stay yet.

This post is really a year-end review of our sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes / Helianthus tuberosus). This is our first year with this plant of the sunflower genus. We planted tubers in mid-May as soon as we got them. Over the season they grew 9 feet tall, provided wonderful flowers, and have yielded an abundance of edible tubers. On to the details...

We planted 1 lb of tubers on 5/13/2009; cut into sections to make five plants.

(Helianthus tuberosus: sunchoke seed tubers)

A suitable site was found away from other beds -- just in case they spread. The first shoots appeared early June after about 25 days. Next year they should be much earlier as the native stands (in the ground since last fall) seem to have emerged a month sooner.

(A 5x2' bed; First sprouts June 7)

It was a cool spring, but the plants grew to 1' after 40 days.
(Growing up June 22)

Early July the plants where a foot taller...reaching Dakota dog height.

(Sunchokes at least 2' by July 10)

By August they were forming a nice screen at 4 feet. They were as tall as our chain-link fence.

(Climbing to 4' - August 9)

Two more feet were gained by September (5-6' total).

(Sunchokes - September 5)

Early to mid-September flower buds were forming at about 115 days. I was excited that we would have a chance for flowers. The sunchokes in the park were already in full bloom.

(Buds on September 13)

Mid-September the plants were towering at 7-8 feet. That shade was a favorite resting spot for Dakota...

(Sunchokes 8' - 9/13/2009)

In fact, she decided to dig a little and exposed some tubers near the surface under the grass mulch.

(Sunchoke tubers near the surface)

Later in September the plants peaked in height ranging from 7.5 to 9 feet tall. They finally began to flower after 131 days. Again, I expect next year they will flower a month sooner.

(Sunchoke flowers - September 26)

We had a great display of the plants in near full bloom at the start of October. The plants shut down after a hard frost around 10/10/2009. I'll have to post a picture of the plants after hard this hard freeze.

(October 6)

After the frost I harvested 2 of 5 plants. We will save the others a little longer and come up with some storage options. We will place a few tubers right back in for next years crop. I did notice that maybe our ground was a bit too hard as the tubers were in a very tight block. Conveniently contained, but hard to separate. We will see next year if this was due to soil or the variety (after digging the soil should be much looser next year).

(Sunchokes lifted from ground - 10/11/2009)

Those 2 plants gave 9 lb 13.2 oz of tubers....that's a yield ratio of 24.56:1 based on 1 lb planted! Compare that with our 5 lb of potatoes that yielded 31.31 lb for a ratio of 6.26:1. That's also not considering that the sunchokes took maybe half the space of the potatoes and no additional water or maintenance.

(Half bucket of sunchoke tubers)

As a food, the tubers have tasted great so far. They have a similar number of calories as potatoes from what I could find. We haven't been too creative yet...tried boiled, microwaved, and baked and fairly plain with just some butter and salt they have a potato-like flavor. I tried baking some as chips and noticed that the skin seems to have more sugar than potatoes and can caramelize and burn (didn't taste so good). So for chips I still like the potatoes, but we have a lot more to experiment with.

(Clean tuber)

That's it. A fun experiment for the year and a plant we will keep forever in the garden....not that we likely have a choice :-)

Still Here

(above: sunchokes in the park)

Okay, I'm not even going to try to catch up on what was missed since my last post! At least I beat the 3-month mark....This season has actually been quite exciting with new things in the garden. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to share it all. Maybe I will get to some of that over the winter.

So, onward... This is a stand of sunchokes or Jerusalem artichokes in a park we walk through. They do put on an impressive display. You can see a tired Dakota in the foreground (we took a long walk that day). I took the opportunity to smell the flowers and it is true, they do smell a bit like chocolate. Too bad the ones in our yard are not flowering -- they are quite tall though. Maybe I should sneak some of this variety.

(above: sunchokes in the park)

This caterpillar was hanging on the back door. I carefully put it on the ground for a quick photo-op. Is this what they call a "woolly bear"? It sure moved pretty fast. I left it on the kale to make its escape. We have had a large mix of insects in the yard this year.

(above: caterpillar)


(above: caterpillar on kale)

I guess the Monarchs are mostly moving south, but we saw a couple too tired to go anywhere. We were careful not to touch the wings of this one. It few off to the tree tops after a couple photos.

(above: tired Monarch butterfly)


(above: tired Monarch butterfly)

This seems to have been a year for dragonflies -- more to eat the mosquitoes. Here are a couple found resting in the yard. Overhead in the evenings are busy airways with much zig-zagging.

(above: black/blue dragonfly)


(above: red dragonfly)

Finally, I cannot forget our wonderful bees! There have been so many. I think that a few have begun to hibernate near or in the yard, which may explain the increase in activity this year. I also built a bee condo/house and have had many occupants. They sure do love certain flowers. Echinacea seems one favorite, but sunflowers and raspberries have attracted the largest groups.

(above: bumblebee on echinacea)

Well, we are still here in ND and the garden has grown this year. The season is not done and I am hoping to get some vegetables before the fall frosts come.

June Update - Part 2

This is the Part two of my June update....here is part one. This is kind of like one of those vacation slide shows... Well if you are here, maybe there is something interesting you will find in our June garden.

I love these flowers (above and below). The barrel on the right has what I have thought are "purple tansy"...they look nice as seedlings, in bud, and purple blooms later.


We started a rain barrel in the ferns by the garage. I wonder if they will fill in and hide the whole garbage can. At least it has been full so I know it won't tip over with the weight of water.


This year we are growing parsnips...the ones in the back are a couple weeks ahead of those in the front. This brick really has no purpose.


I never knew parsnips look like cilantro...I will have to check the spacing and maybe thin these.


It is a time of alliums here...chives are blooming. Given a warm, sunny morning I should find some bees in them.


Another allium, love the tall blooms of these.


We are starting some ever-bearing strawberries to supplement our June-bearing harvest. There are also some pole beans and cucumbers in this barrel...we will see if they grow over the fence.


Jerusalem artichokes / sunchokes are another new plant this year....here I have some in a container...


We also have a bed of sunchokes started. It will be fun to see how they look in the fall.


These are some very nice hostas we inherited with the house. I really like how large these get -- they fill in most of this North side of the house.


A volunteer viola -- I hope to get more growing. These are another of those edible flowers.


Parsley from last year is starting to build a seed stalk. It will be the first time I see parsley flowers.


June raspberries are almost here...


Finally, I was impressed to see an herb return from last year. This lemon balm returned where parsley failed to survive the winter. This made a great addition to my wood sorrel cold tea.


Thanks for visiting our garden!