Jerusalem Artichokes
I purchased these Jerusalem Artichokes last year at the farmer’s market and they got pushed to the back of my fridge. I was actually going to plant them last fall and completely forgot. When I finally saw them in the fridge it was mid-winter. Then I forgot about them again until a month or so ago when my mom and I were talking about them. I got them out of the fridge figured they would never sprout or grow, so I was going to throw them in the compost. I figured I’d let them sit on the counter for a few days to see what would happen. Low and behold, they started to sprout roots and green shoots.
I haven’t planted them in the garden yet because I need to find the perfect spot. Planting them in a raised bed in the back would be a good ideas, I hear they can become invasive. This is a completely new plant for me (although I have something growing along the edge of the woods that looks very similar and I must dig some up to see if they have tubers). From what I read they’re kind of like a potato, but slightly sweeter and nuttier. Some people eat them raw, some people steam them like potatoes. The history of the Jerusalem Artichoke, or Sunchoke as it’s also called, is quite fascinating (here’s an interesting link). Since it’s a native wild vegetable to North America, I really want to include it in my garden.
I’d like to spend some time researching how the Indians prepared them and try to use their methods. It certainly would be a great history lesson for kids to grow and eat these. They would pair well with a lesson on the Native American Indians who cultivate them or Lewis and Clark since they used them for sustenance on their long journey.
Do you grow Sunchokes? Have you ever eaten them? Any tips for me? Do you grow any other unusual vegetables?
Share this:
Always a Challenge
Growing melons is a challenge here in the north where the summers are usually too cool for them. That hasn’t stopped me from planting a few each year, though I never seem to get a watermelon bigger than a tennis ball.
This year, I planted some Rainbow Sherbet Watermelons from Renee’s Garden. Most of the vines got choked out by weeds when were on vacation. I did find the one above watermelon when I was pulling tall weeds. One vine, however was planted in an heavily mulched area and didn’t have much competition. The boys from the farm pointed out that it had a nice little melon on it when we got home. I harvested it two weeks ago.
I was wondering which color it would be when I cut it open since the seed pack contained three different varieties of melon (one of the great benefits of buying seeds from Renee’s). When I cut it open, it was a beautiful golden yellow, which means it was a ‘Yellow Doll’ watermelon.
It was nice and sweet, small, and provided two perfectly sized servings. Someday, when I have a much larger garden, I want to experiment with growing melons in low tunnels (like the ones I use to overwinter crops). The farmer’s at the market tell me that’s the way to do it here in our area. They have also recommended a few varieties of heirloom melons that do better in cooler climates. That’s one great thing about shopping at the local farmer’s market, they’re more than willing to give you advice on what to grow and how to grow it best in your area. The local farmer’s market can be a wealth of information for the home gardener!
Where do you find the best gardening advice for your particular area?
Share this:
The Last Harvest
Except for possibly some spinach and arugula, I harvested the last major item from the 2011 edible garden. Last week, the remainder of the potatoes were exhumed from the earth and stashed away in the garage to provide sustenance through the winter. You might think it’s a little late to be harvesting potatoes and it is for me.
Generally, I plant potatoes early in the spring and harvest them in July. Here in NE Ohio we had a very wet spring which made planting potatoes early impossible . Any that were planted in April rotted in their water graves. I planted fresh potatoes in their place at the beginning of June, and they grew beautifully all summer. Potatoes planted earlier have less trouble with potato beetles. I didn’t spot a single potato beetle here at Chiot’s Run. We spotted one or two potato beetles at my mom’s house, but they were never a problem.
Since I had planted all of my saved seed potatoes in the spring, I didn’t have any seed potatoes left for replanting in June, so I ordered some from Wood Prairie Farm. I got 1 pound of ‘Elba’ and ‘King Harry’ and 2.5 pounds of ‘Butte’. They all grew well, but Butte outproduced the others by a lot, which isn’t surprising since they were in a section of the garden that has better soil. I harvested 15 pounds of ‘Butte’ from the seed potatoes. I’m really interested to see how the later harvest affects the keeping abilities of the potatoes. Theoretically, they should last later into the spring since they were harvested a few months after the other potatoes.
This isn’t my entire potato crop, some of them were were grown in the potager at my mom’s house. We planted them in May and harvested them in early September when we returned from vacation. They were actually ready to harvest much earlier, but we were on our Tiny Trailer Travels for most of August.
There’s something really great about growing a good crop of potatoes each year. Homegrown potatoes are much tastier than their supermarket counter parts and it sure is nice to have that secure feeling a good stockpile of potatoes gives you. Even though potatoes and other food are readily available in the supermarket all winter long, it certainly gives you a sense of security to have a big box of potatoes in the pantry! This winter I’m experimenting with keeping my potatoes in the garage until it’s super cold, then in the outdoor basement stairwell. I’ll keep you updated on how the root cellar alternatives work out.
Do you grow potatoes in your garden? Do you grow enough to eat throughout the year? What do you think will be your last harvest from the garden?
For an in depth article about growing your own potatoes read this post on the Your Day Blog.
PS – love those gloves in the last photo? Ethel is retiring the Port Royale style and they’ll be 50% off this week.
Share this:
Homegrown Ginger
Remember back when I told you about my experiment to plant some ginger roots last spring? It sprouted well and grew all last summer. I brought it inside for the winter and I actually thought it died because the green tops all died. In the spring, I put it back outside to see if it would sprout again. It did, and this summer it grew into a fairly nice plant over the summer. So I’m guessing it might just go dormant over the winter like many other plants.
I’m considering repotting it into a larger pot, and am especially curious to see how big the roots have gotten. Maybe I’ll wait to see if it dies back again this winter and repot at that time. It certainly will be nice to use some of my own homegrown fresh ginger in some tea!
Any interesting plant experiments going on in your garden?
Share this:
Harvesting the Popcorn
Last week my mom and I started clearing out the pottager that we share. The popcorn was the first thing to go, as it was ready to be harvested. This year I planted ‘Amish Butter’ popcorn from Southern Exposure. I also planted ‘Genuine Cornfield’ bean, a special variety of shade tolerant pole bean to grow up the corn.
I was hoping to harvest the pole bean seeds to reuse, but they had just started to bloom and there were only a few small green beans on them. I picked the few beans and the plants were added to the compost pile, along with the corn stalks. The beans grew well in the shade of the corn, they just didn’t have a long enough season or the weather wasn’t right for them this year
All the ears of popcorn were harvested and thrown in the attic for a week to dry a little more, they were already fairly dry at harvest. A week later, I shucked them and laid them out on racks to dry further.
We got some pretty nice looking popcorn. It was interesting to see the difference in size and quality of the ears. Some were beautiful and perfect, while others were tiny. I’m not quite sure what happened here, perhaps I should have thinned the corn more, or maybe a little more fertilizer should have been applied since corn is a heavy feeder and they were planted in a new area of the garden. Next year I plan on experimenting by spacing them a little farther apart and planting clover underneath them as a nitrogen fixing cover crop.
All-in-all I’m happy with our harvest. Mr Chiots and I occasionally enjoy popcorn as an evening snack and it’ll be nice to know I grew it myself every time we pop a batch. I hope this popcorn is as good as the strawberry popcorn we grew two years ago. With the amount we harvested, we should have enough popcorn for the next two years.
Do you grow corn in your garden? popcorn, field corn, or sweet?
