The gardening students recently harvested and cooked 21 pounds of sunchokes. Sunchokes, which taste like mild radishes when raw and potatoes when cooked, go by many different names; some of which include: Jerusalem artichoke, earth apple, sunroot, and the crowd favorite, fartichokes.
These underground storage tubers are the edible part of the plant that is native to central North America and is in the sunflower family. Indigenous tribes commonly ate sunchokes for centuries before they were introduced to Europe in the 1600s. The students enjoyed sautéing the tubers in olive oil and the apple cider vinegar they made five weeks ago. They also added garlic, onion (from the garden), rosemary (from the garden), salt, and pepper. Despite being given a thumbs up by most students for flavor, the jury is still out if they live up to their hilarious name.