Jerusalem artichokes

In February, I received a bag of earth from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. I thought they had made a mistake and was going to send it back when I realised it contained what looked like small black shrivelled up sweet potatoes. They were my tubers of Jerusalem artichokes (or topinambours in French. )

Strange looking roots, aren't they?

Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has nothing to do with Jerusalem, or even artichokes for that matter. Apparently, when the Jerusalem artichoke was first discovered by Europeans it was called Girasole, the Italian word for sunflower, since the Jerusalem artichoke belongs to the same family than the classic yellow garden sunflower. When the tubers were imported in Britain, the name Girasole transformed into Jerusalem, and its flavour reminiscent of the globe artichokes’ gave it its full name. I haven’t eaten it since I was a kid and don’t remember what it does actually taste like but my mum loves it and I trust my mum’s taste buds. It is also making a sort of come back at the moment, but is still difficult to find in supermarkets. It is apparently very easy to grow and I like "no hassle" vegetables! I picked the Fuseau variety as they are much smoother than other varieties and should be easier to peel.

I planted them in a corner of the plot on the 25th of March and nothing came through for ages. They started poking their heads through the ground at the end of April, initially quite tiny, they have recently put on a massive spur of growth and are doing extremely well : high (almost as high as me!), strong stems with lots of foliage. I am really looking forward to them flowering : large yellow flowers, resembling the classic sunflower and of course to the harvest comes the autumn.

Small plants - 20th of May

A month later - and the nasturtiums are doing well too!