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Growing on the High Plains: Jerusalem Artichokes

Today's installment of Growing on the High Plains is a re-broadcast.

Spring is upon us across the High Plains, and surely all your veggie cultivators have been busy in your beds—garden beds, that is. Today’s Growing on the High Plains take a look at an easy-to-grow root vegetable that, despite its name, is neither from Jerusalem nor an artichoke. While alternate names like “sunroot,” “sunchoke,” and “earth apple” often get used in lieu of “Jerusalem artichoke,” it’s one of those tubers that you won’t easily forget once you’ve eaten it. They look a bit like a ginger root, though their texture and flavor is more like a potato or water chestnut. They bloom throughout the summer and look like sunflowers, but in the fall you can dig down and fetch the hearty treats that lie beneath.

Years ago Skip Mancini left the rocky coast of Northern California to return to her roots in the heartland. Her San Francisco friends, concerned over her decision to live in a desolate flatland best known for a Hollywood tornado, were afraid she would wither and die on the vine. With pioneer spirit, Skip planted a garden. She began to learn about growing not only flowers and vegetables, but hearts and minds. If you agree that the prairie is a special place, we think you'll enjoy her weekly sojourns into Growing on the High Plains.