Once we got all of our garlic seed in the ground, that freed up cold storage space for my growing collection of seed sunchokes (aka “Jerusalem artichoke”, “wild sunflower”, “sunroot”, “earth apple”, “Canadian truffle”, and more).

Introducing this triple-threat survival crop to the farm will provide us a natural privacy screen, pollinator paradise, and edible tubers! Sunchokes are a prebiotic-providing member of the sunflower family that not only grows tall, bright flowers loved by pollinators, but its tubers can be harvested for sustenance. While the tubers look a lot like a cross between potato and ginger, many people say they taste more like a water chestnut. Just one cup of sliced sunchokes, offers 28% of the daily recommended iron, 18% of potassium, and 10% of vitamin C. Wow!

I’m excited to have planted my sunchoke rhizomes on the farm and am grateful to carry on this indigenous seed. I anticipate a bountiful Fall through Winter harvest as word on the street is that, once planted, sunchokes grow like crazy and persist for years. This humble and hardy crop is a beautiful addition to our ancestral land. Give thanks.