Jerusalem Artichokes: The Gourmet Sunflower

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I'm told that about 90 species of sunflower grow in the world ... two-thirds of them right here on the North American Continent. If I had to pick just one variety of the plant to live with for the rest of my life, however, I don't think I'd have too much trouble deciding on the particular kind of sunflower that is known as the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus).

Granted, the Jerusalem artichoke isn't much in some respects when you compare it to most of the rest of the sunflower family. It only grows from five to ten feet tall (other sunflowers sometimes stretch up 20 feet or more) and it has nothing at all in the center of its blossoms (where most sunflowers boast a large, brown disc loaded with oil-rich, edible seeds).

Then again, you can't always judge a book by its cover ... or a sunflower by its seeds. Because, buried beneath the surface of the earth, the modest little Jerusalem artichoke has hidden away something that the other sunflowers don't have: pints, quarts, peckssometimes even bushels —of a tasty, nutritious somewhat-potatolike tuber. A tuber, moreover, that you can harvest and enjoy throughout that long, cold portion of the year (winter) when so many other wild and cultivated fruits and vegetables are no longer available.

IT'S NOT FROM JERUSALEM AND IT'S NOT AN ARTICHOKE

No one really seems to know how the Jerusalem artichoke got its name, since it's a native of this continent and it certainly is in no way related to the globe artichoke. There may be some truth, however, to stories about early U.S. and Canadian settlers corrupting into English ("Jerusalem") the names (girasol and girasole) that even earlier Spanish and Italian seamen and explorers had given to the tall, flowering plants they saw tended by native North Americans. And, perhaps, the "artichoke" part of the name did indeed evolve because the blossoms of these unusual sunflowers were sometimes boiled, buttered, and eaten much like the globe artichoke. Whatever, the Jerusalem artichoke seems stuck with its name now ... although there is a move underfoot in some gardening circles to redub it the "sunchoke".

IT'S A HALE AND HARDY PLANT

Jerusalem artichokes are now cultivated by gardeners in many parts of the United States and Canada. They're also raised in Europe (especially around the Mediterranean) and other areas of the world. "Cultivated" and "raised" are probably not the right words to use when talking about these wild sunflowers, however, since they tend to grow so vigorously that once planted—they seldom require any additional care at all.

As a matter of fact, the Jerusalem artichoke is so hardy—especially in the eastern United Statesthat it tends to "jump the fence" of most gardens rather quickly, and then spread out along ditches, fence rows, country roads, streams, and into vacant fields entirely on its own. It's not at all uncommon to find the vegetable patch of a long-abandoned backwoods homestead entirely covered with a thick stand of the wild sunflowers. Still, the Jerusalem artichoke is such an ornamental and such a valuable plant, that I've never heard anyone call it a "weed". Helianthus tuberosus seems to carry its welcome with it wherever it goes.

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