Earlier this year, Kate scored a few little sunchoke plants from her local buy-nothing group. We planted them in the west bed by the house, and throughout the summer we've been impressed by their vegetative growth. It was exciting to see what these plants would do, since neither of us had grown them before. We were hoping for flowers, but never got any. They just kept growing taller and taller. And I had no idea what I was going to find when it came time to harvest.
These things are wild! These oddly shaped root vegetables are in the sunflower family, and they have an earthy, nutty flavor that's reminiscent of sunflower seeds. We sliced them up and roasted them, and wow! I've got a new favorite root vegetable. I can't wait to make this a staple in my diet. Apparently they're low calorie, very nutritious, and high in fiber. Sounds like a win to me.
