Last year, my suweeto haato bought a bunch of Jerusalem artichokes from the local farmer’s market…
They tasted really good: sweet and crunchy…
So, I kept three little ones as seed for our potager…
Just harvested one plant yesterday, and woah, was surprised to see this ‘cannon-ball’ coming out from the soil…
The taste, as I recall, is equally good as the original ones we got from the farmer’s market….
Prior to that, we had obtained some tubers (see picture below) from a neighbor…
Those tubers produced pretty yellow flowers but they did not taste good…
I shouldn’t be surprised in that they are ‘good’ and ‘not-so-good’ strains in veggies…
Am only happy that we can continue to enjoy tasty Jerusalem artichokes from now on…
As with the artichokes, yes, there are ‘good’ and ‘not-so-good’ spinach as well…
This specimen, with seeds that are spiky, is crunchy and tasty…
The plants are stocky, thick, and the leaves, deep green…
Now, this next specimen, with seeds that are round and smooth, is, hmmm, in my opinion, not quite as tasty as it should be…
Perhaps it is my lack of skills to nurture them…
But I have them in two separate lots, and they all take on a similar ‘anatomy’…
Their stems are long and lanky, and their leaves, light green and ‘salad-like’…
I grew a lot of daikon (radish) last season, in rows…
Too much, in fact…
I did not do a good job in thinning them out, so they did not manage to grow big…
Anyway, we ate and ate the daikon…
Yet, we could not ‘keep up’…
Finally, they became a little too fibrous for consumption…
Next season, I should not do rows for daikon…
Instead, I should keep to ‘spot’ planting them in intervals of about 15 to 20 centimeters…
And really, how much daikon can a husband and wife team consume in one season? Duh!
Yes, broccoli… isn’t this a lovely vegetable as well?
I normally grow just two plants each autumn…
And they have always given me good harvests…
I keep them in the field even after harvesting the main ‘crown’…
Reason is, there will be numerous mini-mini broccoli heads sprouting out from the main stem…
And whooppeee… potatoes… what would we do without them…
I grow them twice a year and never get tired of them…
For this new spring season, I just planted twenty two seeds of what the Japanese folks call ‘Andes no hitomi’ (direct translation: the ‘Eyes of the Andes’)…
It is my fist time to try this specie and I am looking forward to see how it turns out in a few months’ time…
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I love love love! Always makes me happy reading about the fruits of your labor. 🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I remain grateful to be able to grow and produce these things…
Hmm, I have yet to eat the Jerusalem Artichoke that I planted yet. I bought some tubers 2 years ago but did not have time to eat them so I planted them in the ground. Pretty yellow mini sunflower that summer. Again I did not eat them so they sprouted up again last summer. They are just about to sprout now!! Maybe I should dig up some and taste them!!! What is your favourite way to eat them?
Helen Lim
Yes, the flowers are sunflower-like since they belong to the same aster family… we tried several ways to cook it… but I think an excellent way to eat it is, raw and fresh… we take it as part of the salad…
As always, I’m impressed by the great variety you grow in your garden, and inspired by your beautiful photographs. I spent the winter teaching and teaching and teaching young students with heads hard as rocks! I’m looking forward to getting back in the garden, and keeping up with your blog!
Hahahaa… had a good laugh reading that ‘with heads hard as rock’ thing… anyway, I am equally impressed with the wide range of crops you grow too…
PS: How do you get two harvests of potatoes in one year? Do you harvest them as small seed potatoes, or is this because you have a long cool spring that lets you get two harvests in? I’ve only ever managed to put in a single crop of potatoes, but would love to do more. Your advice, sir?
No secrets here… 🙂
I am lucky to be living in a place with rather mild winters… which means I can grow veggies throughout the year… for potatoes, I can plant them in spring, and then in autumn…
Hi Lrong:-) Yum!….first word that comes to my mind when I look at your photos of food. I enjoy hearing how you evaluate your varieties, I do the same. I often prefer one type over another + then I only grow that type for good:-) I am starting to organize my crops, rotation cycle + seed saving schedule, but it took me several years to taste them all to decide which ones I prefer!
Hi Robbie… yes, on seed saving… come to think of it, I would enjoy trying my hand to grow the lemon cucumber… if possible, can you please send me a little of those seeds?
I’ve never eaten Jerusalem Artichoke before, you’re the second person mention that it is good, I’ll have to find some tubers to plant.
Try it once, if you have the chance… but care should be taken where it is grown as they will spread…
I grow Sunchokes here.
But always forgotten to harvest them.
Then they grow back again repeatedly.
I wonder if you have the purple ones?
My hand are itching to get some,
Purple sun-chokes? Hmmm, I have yet to lay my eyes on them as yet… did they taste good?