Cody - > How do you prepare sunchokes? I planted some from the farmers market > about ten years ago in my parents garden. They are still coming up. It > would be great to know how to prepare them. I find that > they don't taste great and act as a bit of a laxative.
I eat them both raw (sliced thin, eaten like jicama) and cooked (any way you might cook/eat a potato, turnip, or parsnip). My *ritual* is to dig a modest bunch before Thanksgiving and roast them with other root vegetables (roll in oil, salt/pepper/chile-powder) and smother them in mushroom gravy (sauteed mushrooms, nutritional yeast, spice to taste). Any leftovers, I then roll into what I know of as an "African Nut Stew" which is all of these root vegetables simmered in a curry sauce. Inspired by the term "nut" I often also add chestnuts, cashews, even boiled peanuts... the result is a very starchy but tasty "curry" suitable for pre-hibernation bulking up before retiring to your winter-cave. The cashews are "dear" enough and lose their unique nuttiness when overcooked, so I usually add them for the final "bake" and/or "simmer"... Harvesting them will help them spread (especially if you deliberately "reseed" but from my experience, even if you think you got them all, you didn't!) > Another plant that is working its way back from the stigma of being > labeled a weed is Amaranth 🥗. It grows better than the goat heads in > my yard. Speaking of which, if anyone knows a way to eat goat heads > let me know. I have quite a crop this year. I've had good luck with various strains of amaranth, but never have gotten around to eating it... Glen's link to "goatheads" or apparently "horny goat weed" reminds me that I grew up knowing of them as "bullheads" but in fact gave over to "goathead" as an adult. I'm guessing "bullhead" was a regional thing just as Frank's grandson applies the term "pickers". I was shocked when Tami (grew up in Wisconsin) moved into my house and called *everything* that sticks to you a "picker" which *I* of course, would call generically a "sticker".... but the logic of "picking them off your body/dog/shoes/tires" is equally solid. Of course goatheads have a very specific place in my personal house of horrors. From the way a mature (and dry) fruit/seedhead can drive right through the sole of a shoe or the thickest bicycle tire, to the residual irritation/inflammation that the spikes leave behind, to my parent's assignment of clearing the driveway of them as a suitable "chore" for me. Growing up in the high deserts/mountains of the southwest, I've never really lived anywhere (except 1 year in Berkeley) where there were none evident. Mary has been very diligent in pulling them and placing them on our outdoor firepit where they get incinerated with every bonfire. Tami was also very diligent about pulling them when she lived here but was prone to tossing them into piles to dry where they would not only replant themselves, but once dry the "ripe and now dry" fruits would fall off as one moved them to another location. I did talk her out of throwing them into the compost which never works out well, though I suspect my compost pile still has dozens of her early contributions waiting to be given the right conditions to germinate (in a garden bed). I've never been good at maintaining a consistent "hot compost" and the goatheads are big enough I think they might resist even that. I knew of the rumor of Goathead plants being a mild diuretic and therefore helpful for some blood pressure management and liver/kidney support... but didn't know of the other uses. I have tried chewing the mature-but-fresh seeds and didn't find them at all interesting... just fibrous. I understand the Zuni and Hopi both make ash of *many* natural plants/herbs to be cooked with (for the trace minerals?)... I once had a cookbook on that topic, but it has slipped away. For "emergency foods", I was impressed to learn that buffalo gourds (those foul-smelling things that grow way too well even in drought years) come back from a deep and expanding taproot every year, which and be dug, dried and pounded into a starchy flour if needed. I have one that has come back every year for the full 20 years I've been in this house... if it is not disturbed, it does not smell bad (just don't crush a leaf!). From what I understand, the root could easily provide me with 10 or more pounds of starchy flour "come the apocalypse" and there are *many* more in my area... this is just the one I've come to think of as a friend. I've always been a fan of prickly pear fruits and even the pads (nopalos) when pickled (nopalitos). I understand they are a good source of vitamin C, though maybe only whilst fresh? - Steve - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
