my roots

In an effort to plant more perennial edibles, I planted sunchokes this past spring. I'd only tasted these rich and nutty roots a year or so ago, but am a super lazy gardener, so they had a lot of appeal. Nice bright flowers on tall plants (they are in the sunflower family), tasty and prolific root veggies that can stay in the ground through winter, and plants that come back year after year on their own. What more can a gal (who can't be bothered to turn her compost) ask for?

Edible roots are exciting plants for gardeners: all that magic going on underground, hidden from the eye.

I'm leaving a lot of the sunchokes in the ground to harvest them when they're super sweet in the spring. But I pulled a few of these beauties to add to my Korean style radish pickle ferments. Yum. I'm as proud as a mother cat with a new litter of kittens.

If you're not familiar with sunchokes, here's the full 411.