i planted these jerusalem artichokes three hundred and seventy days ago and they have been productive...not as productive as the one i harvested earlier in the month, but near enough...today's first plant required an excavation of an area of 39 X 20 inches to a depth of around 7 inches...that seems to be the normal depth for these things to grow at...it yielded seventy-six tubers of varying sizes...the second plant was right next to it ( these were two of the four plants outside the main sunchoke bed )so it was simply a matter of extending the excavation south...i ended up with a hole of around 36 X 48 inches, and the second plant came up with seventy-nine sunchokes for what i thought was a grand total of one hundred and fifty-five tubers...however i ran across another six as i was back filling the hole so we got one hundered and sixty-one from two plants...about eighty apiece...somewhat fewer than the nintey-one we got from the last plant that was harvested...but enough to tell me there are still hundreds left in the garden...i am preparing a few new raised beds here at home for some tubers, grains, grasses, tomatoes, and peppers...i believe i will be using them to store these jerusalem artichokes in the ground over winter rather than burdening my refrigerator, freezing them, or developing an uncontrolable tase for them...i can dig them up as the weather allows and compare taste as the spring approaches ( my reading tells me that the flavor changes, becoming sweeter after the first hard frost for instance)...an experiment in tuber cuisine.
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