I like to grow them in 50 to 60 gallon barrels that have been cut in half... keeps them in check. Best part is the ease when harvesting--just dump out the barrel and pick out the chokes. Thanks for the recipe!
That's a good idea for harvest. Personally, I like the "auto-replant" feature, so I don't mind the in-the-ground approach. But yours is an EASY harvest. Great idea!
Great video on gardening and cooking Praxis! Back in the 60's sunchokes were sometimes known as fartichokes by back-to-the-land homesteaders. They are high in a type of dietary fiber called inulin (NOT to be confused with insulin!). Inulin causes excessive intestinal gas in some people. If you have not eaten them before, try a small serving the first time. After repeated small exposures, you develop the type of intestinal microflora that will be better able to use the inulin without producing so much gas. Inulin is extracted from sunchokes by food processors and added to a variety of high fiber cereal type bars and other foods that want to be marketed as a good source of dietary fiber. If you have eaten some of those products with no adverse effects, you will probably do just fine eating sunchokes. They are also great roasted in the oven or cooked and mashed like potatoes. They also blend well with other roots like turnips and rutabagas.
Hey Brenda, Thanks for sharing that - Fartichokes! I love it! I never had that reaction, so didn't know to warn people against it. I didn't get into the inulin in this video, but as far as my research has informed me, that substance is considered a helpful dietary element for people with diabetes. Thanks for the fartichoke anecdote. I'll probably add that as the 3rd leg in my sun choke naming stool.
We have a huge area that we grow them in. The height of the plants provide shade to our ducks over the summer time. We start harvesting ours after the first frost and the plant is completely browned and dead. We cut the stalks down to about a foot and cover them over with lots of leaves. Our new favorite way to cook them is to turn them into chips as a side for dinner. I use a hand crank potato slicer so they come out nice and thin. Place the slices in water and rinse them off. Once rinsed place in water and refrig. them for about 3 hours. When ready to fry them, drain the water and place the chips on a towel to dry them. Heat some grapeseed oil infused with garlic to about 300 degrees. Fry the chips in batches just til slightly golden and they have floated to the top. Drain on paper towel and sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika and some thyme. Better than potato chips and you can't just eat one. I also will prepare the slices, do the soak, dry them off and put in freezer bags and freeze to use for another day.
AWESOME recipe! Thanks for sharing. Since I made this video, I discovered an even more amazing way to prepare them on my end that I'll be sure to share soon. Essentially it's the same as what I do here (in terms of spices and frying) but before the frying process, you boil them until they're soft enough to poke with a fork, and then "crush" them with a spatula into little squished patties about 1/2 inch thick, then fry that. OMG, not only is the texture amazing, but the flavor becomes more soft and subtle after boiling them. Definitely worth a try!
😆 I do the same thing. I learn as much as I can about something and decide if I want it. It has to hit all those check marks. And then I just forget about why I wanted them so bad "I said it was good for you. Now plant it and eat it."😊
Yeah, it's hard keeping all the "whys" in one's head after one makes a decision. I just trust my past judgement when I forget why I decided about something and hope I knew what I was talking about back then! ;)
Oh, and I have a new even better way to prepare these. It's all the same recipe EXCEPT, boil the tubers first until they're tender. Then squish them flat-ish to be about 1/2" thick with a fork or spatula, then prepare as I showed here. SOOOOO much creamier when prepared that way.
The tops of the sunchoke plants are also great animal feed too. I cut the top foot off at a time to feed my meat rabbits, also read studies about how the help pigs grow better too, very nutritional plant leaves stems tubers and all.
Thanks! I've always thought that given their fibrous nature, if needed, the stalks are good for cordage making too. That's a somewhat fun skill to practice at. At the very least, making one's own rope now and then forces one to appreciate how easy it is right now to just buy it at a store - for what seems like cheap given how much time it takes to make it by hand.
I'm so glad to hear it. Even if you never grow a single tuber and they just sit waiting to be there for you in an emergency, I think it's worth growing. Best luck!!!
great video, I think David The Good (i'm sure you probably follow him) did a vid on this a few months back. Great veg and easy to grow. I am so jealous of the friability of your soil...I have NEVER had soil that is so easy to dig in...always clay here on the West Coast..I could never dig anything out like this...jealous! thanks!
I watch a fair few of David's videos, but I haven't seen his on this topic. I think the last thing I was watching that he made was about improving soil with that Terra-Something-Or-Other method. On MY soil, that's not native soil around here. I worked that soil up with peat moss, vermiculite, and compost.
Amaranth grows pretty well in my area as well, and (like sunchokes) it seems to grow a bit like a weed. Both are rather interesting as landscaping plants too. I grow an amaranth that is entirely brilliant red and they can grow super tall too - in excess of 6 feet tall in good soil.
I'm honored. I've been checking out your posts for the past few months and I think a lot of them are on the mark. You and I seem to def have some differences of perspective, but I always see that as a positive thing. I rarely learn anything new from people exactly like me... nor have I ever found another weirdo like myself. ;) Welcome!
A few things to consider here. 1, they seem to have tubers once they're starting to die back and yellow. Did you wait until then? 2. Once I thought that a vole ate ALL of my tubers. I couldn't find a single one in my entire patch. The next season (that's this season), dozens of sun chokes popped up in that area. So apparently the tubers were there, but I just missed them. Maybe try digging around deeper or wider? Other than that, I can't say. I hope you find some. I think they're a great crop.
They're similar to potatoes, but prefer storage conditions to be even more moist. Potatoes prefer around 32-40F and 80% humidity. Chokes like the same temps, but 90-95% humidity.
I've never had an issue with deer. We do have deer here. We see them all the time... and I believe they might be nibbling on the leaves from my pear trees, but the don't seem drawn to the chokes.
We planted a patch of sunchoke tubers in our garden bed in our front yard. The Deer and the bunnies completely ate all the stalks and leaves of the sunchokes. We grow all our sunchokes in our fenced in backyard now. Our chickens and ducks also like to dig for tubers as well as eat the leaves.
Thanks for sharing your experience with this Karen. It's odd that we have both rabbits and deer here, but the only animal that seems to poke at our chokes is a vole (who looks VERY healthy and well-fed whenever I see him/her. One thing that I do engage in around my property line is that whenever I need to pee, I try to head outside to "mark my territory". People say that as a joke, but it DOES seem to be taken notice of by many animals (not voles or mice). So that might be a difference in our deer prevention. Fences work great too though!@@karenfrankland7763
@juleslee3362 I'm up in the mountains, I have plants that look like it, my father once got apple 🍎 to grow here because it's cooler up in the mountains.
@juleslee3362 here root vegetables grow like weeds, I want to start growing yuca, malanga and try to grow sweet potato in the wild...next year I want to start my roof top garden to grow peppers, tomatoes and lettuce, I'm also going to start growing plantains again.
@juleslee3362 will do, but won't be upset if it isn't, I have a lot of stuff growing on property, got a lot of lemons growing this year, so one less thing to buy, I also planted acerola, it's a slightly sour carribean cherry 🍒.
@juleslee3362 plantains, green banana and bread fruit are all substitute for potato here, I can make French fries out of all of these, I can make vegan burgers 🍔 and French fries 🍟 out of green banana, I have a video on this, I'm trying to work on as much food production and variety as possible just incase WW3 breaks out, I already know I can reproduce cornish cross meat chickens if I have to step up meat production.
Someone else mentioned that name. I love it! I haven't personally felt any of those impacts on my own body. I guess I had the right digestive ecology all set to go. As I understand it, if people slowly introduce a little of this food over time, their system can keep up and evolve to digest them without the "fartichoke" transition phase.
I like to grow them in 50 to 60 gallon barrels that have been cut in half... keeps them in check. Best part is the ease when harvesting--just dump out the barrel and pick out the chokes. Thanks for the recipe!
That's a good idea for harvest. Personally, I like the "auto-replant" feature, so I don't mind the in-the-ground approach. But yours is an EASY harvest. Great idea!
Great video on gardening and cooking Praxis!
Back in the 60's sunchokes were sometimes known as fartichokes by back-to-the-land homesteaders. They are high in a type of dietary fiber called inulin (NOT to be confused with insulin!). Inulin causes excessive intestinal gas in some people. If you have not eaten them before, try a small serving the first time. After repeated small exposures, you develop the type of intestinal microflora that will be better able to use the inulin without producing so much gas.
Inulin is extracted from sunchokes by food processors and added to a variety of high fiber cereal type bars and other foods that want to be marketed as a good source of dietary fiber. If you have eaten some of those products with no adverse effects, you will probably do just fine eating sunchokes.
They are also great roasted in the oven or cooked and mashed like potatoes. They also blend well with other roots like turnips and rutabagas.
Hey Brenda, Thanks for sharing that - Fartichokes! I love it! I never had that reaction, so didn't know to warn people against it. I didn't get into the inulin in this video, but as far as my research has informed me, that substance is considered a helpful dietary element for people with diabetes.
Thanks for the fartichoke anecdote. I'll probably add that as the 3rd leg in my sun choke naming stool.
thanks for sharing Praxis! never eaten them myself
Def worth a try if you get a chance! :)
We have a huge area that we grow them in. The height of the plants provide shade to our ducks over the summer time. We start harvesting ours after the first frost and the plant is completely browned and dead. We cut the stalks down to about a foot and cover them over with lots of leaves. Our new favorite way to cook them is to turn them into chips as a side for dinner. I use a hand crank potato slicer so they come out nice and thin. Place the slices in water and rinse them off. Once rinsed place in water and refrig. them for about 3 hours. When ready to fry them, drain the water and place the chips on a towel to dry them. Heat some grapeseed oil infused with garlic to about 300 degrees. Fry the chips in batches just til slightly golden and they have floated to the top. Drain on paper towel and sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika and some thyme. Better than potato chips and you can't just eat one. I also will prepare the slices, do the soak, dry them off and put in freezer bags and freeze to use for another day.
AWESOME recipe! Thanks for sharing. Since I made this video, I discovered an even more amazing way to prepare them on my end that I'll be sure to share soon. Essentially it's the same as what I do here (in terms of spices and frying) but before the frying process, you boil them until they're soft enough to poke with a fork, and then "crush" them with a spatula into little squished patties about 1/2 inch thick, then fry that. OMG, not only is the texture amazing, but the flavor becomes more soft and subtle after boiling them. Definitely worth a try!
Thanks. Planted tubers last spring. Got a bunch of seeds in stock for next spring.
😆 I do the same thing. I learn as much as I can about something and decide if I want it. It has to hit all those check marks. And then I just forget about why I wanted them so bad
"I said it was good for you. Now plant it and eat it."😊
Yeah, it's hard keeping all the "whys" in one's head after one makes a decision. I just trust my past judgement when I forget why I decided about something and hope I knew what I was talking about back then! ;)
Oh, and I have a new even better way to prepare these. It's all the same recipe EXCEPT, boil the tubers first until they're tender. Then squish them flat-ish to be about 1/2" thick with a fork or spatula, then prepare as I showed here. SOOOOO much creamier when prepared that way.
The tops of the sunchoke plants are also great animal feed too. I cut the top foot off at a time to feed my meat rabbits, also read studies about how the help pigs grow better too, very nutritional plant leaves stems tubers and all.
Thanks! I've always thought that given their fibrous nature, if needed, the stalks are good for cordage making too. That's a somewhat fun skill to practice at. At the very least, making one's own rope now and then forces one to appreciate how easy it is right now to just buy it at a store - for what seems like cheap given how much time it takes to make it by hand.
Thanks for doing this. I will start to grow this.
I'm so glad to hear it. Even if you never grow a single tuber and they just sit waiting to be there for you in an emergency, I think it's worth growing. Best luck!!!
Looks delicious, planted some a couple of years ago but haven't eaten any yet. Will give it a try.
Good luck with them. I hope you like them - or at least don't DISlike them. They're a great food!
Awesome! Love the cooking videos ❤ thanks man. Looks tasty 👍
Let me know if you try/like it! :)
Today on apocalypse cooking with Praxis... Great Video, Thanks for the recipe.
Let me know if you like it... and better yet, let me know if you think up any IMPROVEMENTS to it! :)
@@PraxisPrepper I will be trying the corn meal more on some of my dishes, like the next time I simmer up some carrots in the cast iron .
I have been thinking about growing sun chokes next year, but wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Thanks for the inspiration.
Glad it was helpful!
great video, I think David The Good (i'm sure you probably follow him) did a vid on this a few months back. Great veg and easy to grow. I am so jealous of the friability of your soil...I have NEVER had soil that is so easy to dig in...always clay here on the West Coast..I could never dig anything out like this...jealous! thanks!
I watch a fair few of David's videos, but I haven't seen his on this topic. I think the last thing I was watching that he made was about improving soil with that Terra-Something-Or-Other method. On MY soil, that's not native soil around here. I worked that soil up with peat moss, vermiculite, and compost.
Looks good Praxis. Thanks
Thanks GPNJ!
I could see adding scrambled eggs to this dish at the end of cooking for a protein.
Been looking for .... something else to try to grow where I am this could be amazing and if I could say combo it with amranth....
Amaranth grows pretty well in my area as well, and (like sunchokes) it seems to grow a bit like a weed. Both are rather interesting as landscaping plants too. I grow an amaranth that is entirely brilliant red and they can grow super tall too - in excess of 6 feet tall in good soil.
Watch some SOUTHERN COOK VIDEOS and learn how to use cornmeal!
Subbed and going to try this recipe
I'm honored. I've been checking out your posts for the past few months and I think a lot of them are on the mark. You and I seem to def have some differences of perspective, but I always see that as a positive thing. I rarely learn anything new from people exactly like me... nor have I ever found another weirdo like myself. ;)
Welcome!
I grew some this year for the first time. Today I dug up one and saw zero tobors. Any idea why I didn't see any?
A few things to consider here. 1, they seem to have tubers once they're starting to die back and yellow. Did you wait until then? 2. Once I thought that a vole ate ALL of my tubers. I couldn't find a single one in my entire patch. The next season (that's this season), dozens of sun chokes popped up in that area. So apparently the tubers were there, but I just missed them. Maybe try digging around deeper or wider? Other than that, I can't say. I hope you find some. I think they're a great crop.
Do you know if you can store the tubers for winter? Kind of like how you can with potatoes?
They're similar to potatoes, but prefer storage conditions to be even more moist. Potatoes prefer around 32-40F and 80% humidity. Chokes like the same temps, but 90-95% humidity.
Do you have problems with deer wanting to eat this. And will they process well through a freeze dryer?
I've never had an issue with deer. We do have deer here. We see them all the time... and I believe they might be nibbling on the leaves from my pear trees, but the don't seem drawn to the chokes.
We planted a patch of sunchoke tubers in our garden bed in our front yard. The Deer and the bunnies completely ate all the stalks and leaves of the sunchokes. We grow all our sunchokes in our fenced in backyard now. Our chickens and ducks also like to dig for tubers as well as eat the leaves.
Thanks for sharing your experience with this Karen. It's odd that we have both rabbits and deer here, but the only animal that seems to poke at our chokes is a vole (who looks VERY healthy and well-fed whenever I see him/her. One thing that I do engage in around my property line is that whenever I need to pee, I try to head outside to "mark my territory". People say that as a joke, but it DOES seem to be taken notice of by many animals (not voles or mice). So that might be a difference in our deer prevention. Fences work great too though!@@karenfrankland7763
Not sure if that grows here, now I do have arrow root that I have never eaten.
I haven't tried arrow root either. I've read about it in books, but not sure whether I've ever seen it around here.
@juleslee3362 I'm up in the mountains, I have plants that look like it, my father once got apple 🍎 to grow here because it's cooler up in the mountains.
@juleslee3362 here root vegetables grow like weeds, I want to start growing yuca, malanga and try to grow sweet potato in the wild...next year I want to start my roof top garden to grow peppers, tomatoes and lettuce, I'm also going to start growing plantains again.
@juleslee3362 will do, but won't be upset if it isn't, I have a lot of stuff growing on property, got a lot of lemons growing this year, so one less thing to buy, I also planted acerola, it's a slightly sour carribean cherry 🍒.
@juleslee3362 plantains, green banana and bread fruit are all substitute for potato here, I can make French fries out of all of these, I can make vegan burgers 🍔 and French fries 🍟 out of green banana, I have a video on this, I'm trying to work on as much food production and variety as possible just incase WW3 breaks out, I already know I can reproduce cornish cross meat chickens if I have to step up meat production.
AKA: Fartichokes
Someone else mentioned that name. I love it! I haven't personally felt any of those impacts on my own body. I guess I had the right digestive ecology all set to go. As I understand it, if people slowly introduce a little of this food over time, their system can keep up and evolve to digest them without the "fartichoke" transition phase.
Verbal diareah 😊
Nice to meet you for the first time ever. That was a nicely done version of a "hello".