Sunchokes- Jerusalem Artichokes

[GardenWeasel]

Just started harvesting one of 10 sunchoke plants. We tried them and they are ok but supposedly can cause digestive upset if eaten liberally. Main reason for growth was as chicken feed so happily boiled up a big pot and put them out for the hens. Nada-no way. One bite and a wiped beak. I will try them raw today. Any body have any ideas for me? I try to let the chickens choose what they want but am tempted to mix with other feed. I think I will have about a hundred pounds and I have to dig them all or each will become a new plant. Help!

 

[dragonlaurel]

Dig some and stick one in the coop when they are bored. Maybe they'll eat their toy. Sometimes people hang a cabbage in the coop to keep them busy in yucky weather and it usually gets eaten pretty soon.

 

[me&thegals]

We LOVE these shredded with regular potatoes or sweet potatoes and then fried into hashbrowns. Otherwise, if only for chickens, I agree with stringing them up as playtoys in the coop.

 

[Dawn419]

GardenWeasel,

Did you try mixing the sunchokes with some of the chickens' regular feed?

That's about the only way I can get mine to try new stuff.

I've read that chickens like to eat the foliage of 'chokes (ours never seemed to bother the patch that I had back in TN, though) and they'd probably enjoy the dried seeds.

 

[Marianne]

That's interesting... my girls don't eat half the stuff that people say their hens eat! I never thought about mixing it with something they eat already. Duh.

I'll have to see if my sunchoke patch comes back. DH thought he'd help me out by spraying 'those weeds back there'... You know how I feel about herbicides in general.

 

[cheepo]

Marianne my chickens are picky too...lots they just won't touch...
dosen't matter what else is in the bowl they will leave what they don't want...
including brocoli carots
is way better in the summer when they can just eat the weeds I pull

 

[FarmerJamie]

Don't waste those on chickens! Sunchokes are a lower-carb alternative to potatoes. Creamy cheesy sunchoke soup.

My chickens won't eat sunchokes nor potatoes.

 

[StupidBird]

Ok, so I probably now have a zillion of these "fartichokes" in the ground. We like them, but they do a serious number on the local air quality and noise abatement issues.

Seriously! What can I do to make these more digestible for us? Is this just a "getting your gut used to it" and I should feed MORE, or some people just can't tolerate 'em? I've prepared them raw to very well done. Fried. Baked. Boiled. Still becomes the fart wars every time. And yes, the dear chickens ignore them.

I have found that the way to compost them thoroughly dead is in double black garbage bags, stuffed full of sunchokes and lemon balm (another accidental invasive thug), wet it down, tie it closed, and dump the bags in a hidden corner in the garden until next spring.

 

[Marianne]

Ok, so I probably now have a zillion of these "fartichokes" in the ground. We like them, but they do a serious number on the local air quality and noise abatement issues.

 

[tamlynn]

Today I planted 11 tubers in a really poor-quality area of my yard, hoping since everyone says they will take over that they will manage to survive. I've only tasted one once, raw, so I have no idea what I'll do with them if I get overrun. I'm also a little scared about the environmental impact of the indoors, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. So in the meantime, how about some recipes?