Jabba the jerusalem artichoke

I've been guilty this winter of making poor use of my abundant jerusalem artichoke crop. Some have been sitting in a Ziplock bag in my fridge for several days now, and there are plenty more still in the ground still to be harvested (that's on my to-do list for Easter). I took action tonight and made a Delia Smith recipe for carrot and jerusalem artichoke soup with them. I didn't have the celery the recipe called for but I lived defied Delia and made it anyway. It was dead simple, unlike some Delia recipes, which tend on the unnecessarily fiddly side (one recipe we tried involved frying each mushroom of a pile weighing something like 1lb individually in a pan - yeah right!).

Anyway the soup tastes great, and I am hoping that those who say the wind-inducing powers of the jerusalem 'choke (or sunchoke as it's also known) are reducing when it's turned into liquid form. I took lots of pictures that are, alas, lost forever due to what I can only describe as human error. It's a shame, because my picture of the tuber that looked like Jabba the Hut will never be seen again, now the picture is lost and it's been pulverised ...

I must use the rest of the 'chokes for an artichoke mash over Easter weekend. One tip about jersualem chokes is they tend to be impossible to eradicate once planted in a certain area, because you'll always miss a few tubers: in other words, make sure you find a permanent spot for them. The plus point is you don't have to shell out on fresh tubers year after year.

Comments

[OyaDancer]

Got a offtopic question for you; I've had a real bugger of a time getting any of my squash seeds to germinate. I had to order a second packet of seeds as I only got one in eight to germinate. I was using egg cartons for starting pots and they got a bit moldy (I probably should have done a chamomile wash first) and the only way I even got the one lone plant from my squashes was by putting them directly on my radiators to heat up the soil.

I've done Black Futsu and Sweet Dumpling this year and I was rather hoping to have at least three plants of each in the event I may some to frost. I planted the second batch of seeds with the "pointy" bit down, given them a south facing windowledge and occasionally put them on the radiator for an hour or two if it's a bit chill, and still I think I've only got one of the Black Futsu's germinating to show for it - the second packet of Sweet Dumpling hasn't done a thing.

Any ideas?

[Jane Perrone]

hi Oya Dancer

Well I don't want to be too negative but it may just be that you're trying to sow too early: pumpkins and courgettes don't need to be sown until mid May in the UK - later if you want to plant directly into the soil. Plus you need a warmish temperature - 18-20C is good. So keep on with the radiator plan and maybe leave it a few more weeks until you try again ...

jane