Jerusalem Artichoke, an Exceptional Thing
Jerusalem Artichoke is the common name for a perennial sunflower that grows starchy tubers. It is incredibly tolerant to all soil conditions except wet soil. The plant grows seedless flowers and heavy yields of tubers. I have harvested over 12 pounds per plant in decent soil. It is utilized both as food and as animal feed. They are very high in inulin fiber which is a potent probiotic. It can also cause bad gas if you don’t have a good microflora in your gut. The inulin fiber is broken down somewhat by cooking well, acid pickling, and by lacto-fermentation. Here’s a recipe my wife makes that we all enjoy.
Enjoy this little video we put together for you!
Here’s a favorite recipe we make every year.
Recipe for Pickled Jerusalem Artichoke Tubers
- 3 pounds of cleaned tubers
- lemon juice
- salt
- water
- cider vinegar
- sugar
- turmeric
- ground mustard
- ground clove
- ground chili pepper
- 3 bay leaves
Dice the tubers and mix them with the spices, one quart of water, and a quarter cup of salt. Let it brine for 7 days. Drain the brine and add 1 quart of cider vinegar, 1 cup of water, and 1 cup of sugar. Add a few bay leaves and simmer covered for half an hour. It’s now shelf-stable and delicious.
For animal feed
Jerusalem artichokes are higher in feed value than sugar beets and can be a major feed ingredient for common livestock. I use them heavily each fall as pig and chicken feed. The starches and proteins are very digestible by even single-stomach animals. They are not a complete feed, lacking fat and full-spectrum proteins. The green growth can also be used as a hay or green forage crop. You can harvest them heavily and can be used as a primary feed for grazing animals. While it makes poor hay due to crumbling, fresh-cut growth can make excellent sunflower silage.
I like to harvest them thoroughly each year, then replant them, one tuber per square foot of fertile soil. When growing them for tubers, I can yield more calories per square foot with these than anything else I’ve trialed, including corn. The tubers are low in vitamins, but the green tops have a good assortment. The green stems and leaves are high in calcium, iron, and magnesium. The entire aerial parts, when young, are roughly 16 percent protein and 5 percent of that (about 0.8%) is lysine.
That makes early-harvested Jerusalem artichoke greens a great choice for grazing animals or as a supplement for pigs and poultry. When planting them, bury tubers about 6 inches deep. They are late flowering plants and late bulking tubers. For the best yield, wait until the stems go brown before digging up tubers. They don’t store well after a freeze and thaw. Keep them out of direct sun too.
They store best when left in the soil in the fall. Pile the soil deeper over the tubers to keep them from freezing and going bad. It’s fine if they freeze, but they tend to get mushy after thawing and don’t last nearly as long then. I have piled them deep and let the pile freeze solid. Then, just thaw a bucketful at a time for feed. That way, they avoid spoilage well.