ALL the books warn Jerusalem artichokes are nigh-on impossible to move once planted.
True to form, we hadn’t read up on their super-human staying power before we enthusiastically buried about ten tubers last spring.
(I'm keen to grow veg that are either elusive or insultingly expensive in the shops, so rocket, mange tout, purple sprouting broccoli, peppers and fennel are also on the list...)
After a harvest which should technically have qualified as an EU artichoke mountain this January, we decided to eradicate the crop and re-plant just four or five tubers this time

- along the allotment's back ‘wall’, where the mature sapling-like plants should usefully serve as a windbreak this autumn*.
I had pretty good success making huge pans of soup and Jerusalem artichoke mornay (basically baked with cheese sauce - recipes below) this winter.
But there are only so many times a week you can: a – bother to scrub and peel enough of these knobbly, silky skinned, nutty veg to make a meal out of;
b – eat anything made from artichokes without challenging the beef industry’s status as top non-industrial producer of greenhouse gases (they make you fart - a lot); and
c – surreptitiously off-load bags of surplus crop by handing to unsuspecting friends in the pub, and leaving unsolicited 'plot presents' on colleagues’ desks…
So in February, with a renewed enthusiasm for crop rotation (more on this in later blogs), we spent hours digging and re-digging the ground until we were SURE we’d got every last tuber out.
So it was with typical incredulity and shouts of 'What the ****!' that we greeted the discovery that, just as the nettles had shot up last week, so had the artichokes - in the same bed we’d tried to move them from.
- And just to rub it in there seem to be two or three times as many plants as last year.

(In the foreground here you can see a yellow flower on one of our tomato seedlings, planted straight outside - some under cloches. Behind them is the unexpected Jerusalem artichoke 'field', and just beyond you can pick out string running between bamboo canes which are supporting the broad beans)

I’ve been reading up on companion planting* and apparently legumes (that's beans etc to the uninitiated) help root crops grow well, so since the broad beans are just about surviving being squeezed off the bed by the artichokes, we’ll leave them to be for now.
I’ve also read the quality of Jerusalem artichokes diminish if you leave them in one place too many years running. Evidently even the smallest pieces of tubers left in the soil can grow a new plant, so over time they can become weeds.
Looks like a mammoth root digging session will be the first major job of 2008...

We’re having the same 'problem' with some particularly pervasive potatoes. About six plants have sprung up in last year’s potato bed – this year meant to be a new split bed dedicated half to onions and garlic, half to salad leaves and radish.
We’ve decided to leave all but one of the renegade potatoes - which shot up right in the middle of the shallots - where they are.
The condemned plant, it turned out, had already produced three perfectly formed potatoes which, combined with a few randoms dug up while weeding, were enough for lunch.

Ah: free, fresh, organic food - this is what it’s all about!

RECIPES
(These are out of season, I know - but given the subject matter of this entry I might as well get them uploaded now):

NUTTY JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE SOUP:
Lightly soften an onion with olive oil in a saucepan and throw in a few large handfuls of peeled Jerusalem artichokes - you needn't chop them up too small, as they fall apart in the cooking process pretty quickly.
Add a medium sized diced potato if you want a slightly thicker soup, alternatively you could add celery for a lighter version.
Cover with vegetable stock – ideally a white bullion so the soup doesn't get discoloured, or meat eaters could use a chicken stock - and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes.
Season with freshly ground black pepper. Whiz up with a hand blender.
Add salt to taste (I wouldn’t advise adding salt earlier as bullion powders can be quite salty). Add cream - so long as you’re not vegan or on some ridiculous size zero quest.
Top bowls of soup with a sprig of parsley or coriander, and serve with crusty bread.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE MORNAY (due to the aforementioned glut, this became my favourite quick-cook winter comfort food in ‘06/’07):
Blanch a few handfuls of scrubbed Jerusalem artichokes in hot water for five minutes.
Lay in a ceramic oven dish (about five per person is enough for a decent snack).
Pour over a white/béchamel sauce (I’d advise one quite heavily laden with cheese – stretchy Gruyere and Emmental, mixed with a bit of bog-standard cheddar or freshly grated Parmesan, are perfect).
Season with salt and pepper.
Place in a medium to hot oven for 20 minutes.
I stumbled on this melt-in-the-mouth concoction substituting Jerusalem artichokes in what I think was a broccoli recipe.
This is best enjoyed with crusty bread, eaten while curled up in front of the fire after a hard days digging in winter cold and rain - but you could also have it as a side dish with a Sunday roast.

*A QUICK internet search reveals Jerusalem artichokes are part of the sunflower family, and are also known as sunchokes, as named by the native Americans who first planted them.
At their maximum height they reach about ten feet tall (as ours did last year), which is why they are such a good natural fence/windbreak/sunshade. If left to go to seed they produce yellow flowers, reminiscent of a small, slightly scrawny-looking sunflower.
Their gnarly tubers look a but like a ginger root, and taste somewhere between an artichoke and a potato.

*THANKS to all those who posted comments, including those who recommended planting rocket to keep nettles at bay – we have a load of seedlings almost ready to go in. I'll keep you posted.

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