Not known as the most tasty of garden
treats, the Jerusalem artichoke does, however grow prolifically.
From only plants, we produced over 20
kilos of artichokes. Needless to say, this was a little shocking...
especially for those designated to eat them.
So... the first thing you should know
about Jerusalem artichokes is that they're knobbly. They are supposed
to be knobbly... Do not be scared by their appearance.
So here are a few more fun facts about
Jerusalem artichokes and their benefits...
1) They are exceptionally easy to grow
(this is excellent for novice vegetable growers such as us)
2) They are low in calories (i found
this online but I am assuming they are fairly high in carbohydrates)
3) They can be eaten raw or cooked (We
recommend cooked, but if you are going to eat them raw then we
recommend a healthy covering of creamy dip)
4) If eaten in very large quantities
you can feel a little sick
5) Putting a little effort in,
Jerusalem artichokes can be very tasty and a great addition to a
variety of meals... plus they look really really cool and it sounds
very fancy when you say your are serving Jerusalem artichokes as a
side dish!
Planting
1)You can pretty much plant them
anywhere... which means you can put them somewhere in the garden
where nothing else grows.
2)This is another big benefit... they
grow quickly and very tall with sturdy stems which act as a fantastic
windbreak or screen.
3)One tuba can produce 20 so you don't
need to plant too many otherwise they will take over...
Caring for them
All the literature that i have read (2
websites) says that they should be watered regularly and the earth
should be piled up the stalks as they grow. However we pretty much
planted our artichokes and then left them with no attention and they
grew like bamboo (which by the way grows quickly (depending on the
variety))
Harvesting
Our very favourite Jeruselum artichoke
tit bit, is that you should only harvest after the first frost.
Jessica Montgomery found this out, early in the season and by late
autumn everybody knew this fact. We did, however, completely ignore
it. We got slightly impatient and dug them all up in early November.
However the season has been a little late this year so we came out of
it on top and with a lot of artichokes.
Cooking
So... at this point we have an
abundance of artichokes and not one person who knew anything about
them. Jess had had them once before but she didn't really know how to
cook them, except she knew you could roast them. Our genius idea was
to have a experimental cook-off... Every volunteer had to make one
dish with Jerusalem artichokes in an evening and we would all try
each other's for dinner. This is not to be recommended. In future,
maybe limit your artichoke dishes to one per day. However we did come
up with some great recipes and very tasty dishes.
Firstly Jess made what was going to
frittata but ended up tortilla. This as with onion, garlic, eggs and
of course artichokes. She sliced the artichokes thinly in rounds.
This was very delicious and best eaten hot.
Next I made artichoke dip. I roasted
the artichokes (i knew that i could do this with the previous
information from Jess). Then i fried some onions and garlic, put
everything in a bowl with come cream cheese and whizzed it up. I
think there may have been some more ingredients but I’m not sure
what they were. I then put it in a dish, grated some trusty cheddar
and put it in the oven. This was pretty good too.
Norm made what he called 'Artichoke
caviar'... I'm not sure why he called it this but again it was very
tasty. He put this paste on toasted square which he presented as an
hors d’oeuvre.
James made curried artichoke wedges. I
believe coated the artichokes in a flower, garlic and curry mix and
then fried them. This is an ideal snack... perhaps perfect for while
playing poker.
Coral set out to make rosemary and
artichoke crisps. We had spied some rosemary growing down the lane in
a neighbour's front yard, so we sent Coral off, in the dark to forage
for herbs. She came back with lavender. This produced some very
fragrant smelling, salty snacks. The crisps were definitely a hit.
Jakob created a type of artichoke
fritter, which he then spread with either banana, jam or cheese. We
all differed in our opinions of which was best, but it was lovely to
have a sweet alternative. It would have been more lovely if Jakob had
not eaten most of them himself.
Finally Paul made coleslaw without any
artichokes. This was also good.
The moral of this story is that you can
definitely make some very tasty dishes from Jerusalem artichokes,
plus you can add them to stew or soups as a great alternative to
potatoes. We think that this is an under rated vegetable. It's easy
to grow, it's prolific, it requires very little care and can feed a
lot of people. Our only top tip is to spread out your artichoke
consumption so that you don't need a 2 week break from them after one
artichoke saturated evening!
