Back in March, my neighbour Daniel gave me a bag of Jerusalem artichokes to eat and to plant. I had never eaten this vegetable as it had fallen out of favour due to over consumption during the war. Thankfully, the new varieties are more tender than the ones that my grand parents and parents had in their plates.

I therefore planted the bulbs, only five or six and a week or two later a few leaves sprouted ; they looked a bit like potato leaves. They grew bushier and bushier and I ended up with more stalks than I had planted bulbs. They went up to more than two metre high and in October blossomed.

The flower is like a yellow daisy and when it has faded it is time to harvest the crop. You can either lift all your tubers and bring them in as you would do with your potatoes or you can leave them in the ground and get a few at a time. They are hard vegetables so they will get over the frost.

To eat them, you need to cook them , but first they have to be peeled which is not easy due to their uneven shape. Then you can eat them cold with a dressing or hot. As expected, they have the same colour, taste and smell of regular artichoke.

It is a taste that you have to acquire, you'll either love it or you'll hate it. For some recipe ideas using Jerusalem Artichokes have a look at the Jerusalem Artichoke Category in our Recipe Wiki.