photograph by Rick Gush
These two scofflaws went down to the creek and picked these wild flowers .
Our Jerusalem Artichokes , Helianthus tuberosus , which are in bloom of youth in the creek that runs in front of our star sign , have produced an impressive amount of peak . Hardly anybody go up down into the creek during the class , but when thegirasole , or sunflowers , are blooming , several different adventurer guide down to the creek to hack armful of the yellow bloom . Today ’s photo is of a couple of the friendly neighborhood ne’er - do - well with their swag from the creek .
We ’ve essay growning some of the tubers harvest from the creek in our garden , but growing them in dirt did n’t make them bigger . Using some gravid , fat globe artichoke we had corrupt at the marketplace , we now have a commercial-grade variety embed . I cut the Tuber up just as one would cut up a potato to make a cluster of planting oculus and plant those on the sharpness of one of the upper terraces .
The cluster has been develop there for two years now , and I ’m going to harvest it a month from now , after it stops blooming . While the wild plants in the brook are up to 10 - feet - magniloquent , the cultivated variety in the garden is only about half that size . I ’m not worried because I ’ve already essay them by dig out up one genus Tuber , which seemed to be plump . Hopefully , we ’ll harvest enough tubers for a few meals and then replant the remainder . I think the plants will mature more enthusiastically if I move some of next class ’s artichokes to a better - watered bed .
Here in Italy , the roots of Jerusalem globe artichoke , topinambur , are commonly sold in modified quantity at the sassy veg markets . In our home , we eat them a number of multiplication each time of year , usually steam then served in a stock . I ’m quite fond of the flavor and the somewhat - crunchy grain . This vegetable would be great with a steak or pot roast , which we do n’t make in our habitation , but we do sometimes mix in thetopinamburwith other steamed vegetables , which works quite well .
Jerusalem Artichokes are native to the easterly one-half of the United States , and both violent and cultivated varieties are glean somewhat frequently . However , consumer use is lowly , and there is n’t a large market need for the crop . There was an amusing “ boom ” in Jerusalem artichoke planting in the 1980s , but the optimism really turned out to be a humbug that dissipate some Midwestern farmers into planting large areas to this craw . still , this sunflower cousin-german consistently appears on many “ perhaps we should be growing more of this ” leaning , including mine .
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