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| Freshly harvested & washed Jerusalem artichokes |
Besides sweet potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes are the one root crop that did well for me this year. I feed them to the goats (used to feed them to my rabbits), and we eat them too. They are great cooked any way you can think of and can be eaten raw too. Unfortunately, neither Dan nor I can digest raw ones well, so I decided to try lacto-fermenting.
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| Although it doesn't effect the flavor, we find we like various cuts for various lacto-fermented items. Cabbage we like shredded, but turnips in thin slices. I shredded the artichokes in my King Kutter & we liked this texture just fine. |
The recipe I used was from this book, Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning.
It's actually for sauerkraut ("Sauerkraut in Glass Jars" page 68) but I've substituted turnips and now Jerusalem artichokes for the cabbage.Fill a wide mouth quart jar and pack down (I use a wooden potato masher). Add a tablespoon of sea salt and about 10 juniper berries. Cover contents with warm, non-chlorinated water.
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| I've been researching salt and recently bought some Real salt for the minerals |
I had about two quarts, so I dumped it into a crock. I cover the contents with a small saucer and weigh that down with a water filled half-pint jar. I cover the whole thing with a clean cotton dishtowel and let it sit on the countertop for about three days. Then it goes into the fridge.
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| Lacto-fermented Jerusalem artichokes. Yummy! |
When we first started with sauerkraut we loved it. Then I tried turnips for sauerruben and we liked that even better. The Jerusalem artichokes are best of all!
Lacto-Fermented Jerusalem Artichokes © February 2014
I love sauerkraut, now I will have to find Jerusalem artichokes to try this, it really look yummy.
ReplyDeleteDianeOart, hello and welcome! Thank you for taking the time to comment. It's fun to experiment with lacto-fermenting and I think the Jerusalem artichokes have been my tastiest experiment so far.
ReplyDeleteExcellent idea! I love any idea that doesn't involve a big cooking event. With all the snow, I have no energy left for that.
ReplyDeleteLeigh,
ReplyDeleteIf you hadn't said what those were, I would have bet $$ they were ginger. Fermenting anything scares the daylights out of me.
Oh that's a great idea! I grew these for the first time last year, and had trouble getting the family to eat them. Maybe this will work. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLeigh,
ReplyDeleteI would have never thought of doing this to artichokes. What a great idea!!!!
Barb, LOL. Me too although I confess I love my soup when it's cold out. This makes a very easy, very tasty side dish.
ReplyDeleteDFW, they do look like ginger! You need to do some reading on lacto-fermenting. Yogurt, cheese, sauerkraut are all lacto-fermented.
Cassandra, if they love pickles they'll probably like this. :)
Sandy, thanks!
That looks really good. I need to replant my patch, the drought over the last few years ,took them out
ReplyDeleteI love this idea and I love Jerusalem artichokes. We've finished last year's harvest, but I'll plant extra now! Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteDebby, I think drought is worse than too much rain! My sunchokes survived all our rain and I'm thankful for that.
ReplyDeleteMarian Rose, welcome! You've got me curious how you fix them.
Great idea, shredding and fermenting it. I grow Jerusalem artichokes but have been just feeding them to the livestock. I haven't been able to find a way of eating them that both hubby and I like. I also grow yacon which we're not real big on eating either. But we both love fermented cabbage and turnips. So thanks for the idea. I'm going to try fermenting the chokes and yacon.
ReplyDeleteDoes the flavor change as it sits in the fridge? Is it only 3 days for sauerkraut? I made sauerkraut once and it tasted really good. I remember it taking quite a while and it had to be skimmed. I'd like to begin eating fermented vegetables, especially if it's this easy to do.
ReplyDeleteSome time ago I found some beautiful large, round, and un-knobbly, artichokes in an Oriental foods shop. I bought a few, planted them, and awaited my crop of easy-peelable roots. No such luck; they all reverted to the usual knobbly beasts we all know so well. C'est la vie!
ReplyDeleteSu Ba, if you like the cabbage and turnips this way, you'll like the sunchokes. Delish. I wonder if yacon would grow in my little part of the world (always looking for root crops for livestock). I should do some research.
ReplyDeleteDiane, as with all lacto-fermented foods it gets more sour, even in the fridge. So far I haven't had to skim this, but that's not terribly uncommon. I agree about the ease of lacto-fermenting. Plus it increases vitamin and enzymes.
Cro Magnon, welcome! How interesting about the round artichokes. I've never seen that, only the knobby ones. I wonder if these were some sort of hybrid(?)
Amazing! I haven't grown those but I want to now and I've always wanted to make my own sauerkraut. Thanks for the book recommendation too.
ReplyDeleteOMG Leigh...that looks so good! I'm going to check out that book! Thank YOU! :)
ReplyDeleteMy mouth is watering right now. I'll bet that's delicious!
ReplyDeleteLeigh - here's an embarrassing story for you. back in the city, whenever i saw "jerusalem artichokes" i thought they were some kind of weird ginger so i just stuck to regular ginger. several years ago i started making sauerkraut, sauerruben, kimchi, fermented carrots with ginger, etc. then we moved to our dream place a few years ago and started gardening like mad. where we live is very wild and untamed and we like it that way. we love all of the wildflowers here and only clear/mow what land we have to. one of my favourite flowers that were growing all over the place were these tall, beautiful, yellow-petaled flowers - i just loved them. one day i finally got interested enough to look them up.
ReplyDeleteyou guessed it! wild jerusalem artichokes growing all over our land - bahahahaha! so now of course i tend to them and harvest them and let them re-seed every year. we eat them in a variety of ways but now i will ferment them. thanks for sharing.
your friend,
kymber
My Jerusalem artichoke roots were very small for this year's harvest, and I wondered if it was because I overharvested the leaves and stalks to feed the rabbits...
ReplyDeleteThis week's vegetable ferment is Kkakdugi - cubed daikon radish with ginger, garlic, scallions, red pepper flakes and fish sauce.
Oh dear, I seem to have gotten behind on answering comments.
ReplyDeleteSam, there are several good books on lacto-fermenting but I really like that one for simplicity plus other good food preservation ideas.
Pam, so good to hear from you!
Quinn, homemade sauerkraut taught me to love lacto-fermented vegetables. Very tasty!
Kymber, that's too funny, and a good lesson for us all!
Ellen and Adrian, interesting about the leaves and the artichokes. Good theory.
I've yet to try Korean fermenting, but you've got a lot of really tasty sounding ideas on your blog!
Im growing them from one that was given to me in spring. The plant is about 2m high now but no flowers yet. Thanks for the ideas, i had no idea what to do with them. They are not commonly available and rare in supermarkets.
ReplyDeleteLynda, they can actually be eaten like most root crops: raw in salads, baked, or boiled. They can be thinly sliced and cooked in stir fry in place of water chestnuts as long as they aren't overcooked. They make excellent animal feed too. So far we like this way best!
ReplyDeleteGreat article. Does this preparation of jerusalem artichokes reduce their ability to cause flatulence?
ReplyDeleteYES! This is the only way we can eat them raw. :)
DeleteOh good. Well your article has inspired me to give this a try. Our favourite thing we have lacto fermented thus far has been chayote. We call it choko-kraut in our house as Australians call chayote choko.
DeleteWhat an interesting idea. I confess I've never grown chayote, but I am learning that lacto-fermenting has much broader applications than cabbage and turnips!
DeleteWe leave our cabbage only kraut in a fermenting crock for a month before refrigerating, why only 3 days for chokes? I've thought of digging some of our chokes for the pigs, but not for fermenting. I followed your link from today's article, Sunny Days & Frosty Nights. What is the benefit of juniper berries? I've never used them. Now it looks like I need to get out there and do some digging. I'd like to try this. Thank you for the idea.
ReplyDeleteFern
Good question. That is simply the directions I had at the beginning of my lacto-fermenting. :) It works well for our hot summers. It still sours in the fridge, but slower.
DeleteThe juniper berries are for flavoring, but also have a urinary tract / prostate benefit.
Besides the pigs, I feed the chokes to my goats too, chopped of course.
We love them but have trouble digesting them even cooked. Does this make them less gassy?
ReplyDeleteYes it does! We absolutely cannot eat them raw. Roasted is okay, but this is the best way.
DeleteIt was interesting finding you site. Jerusalem artichokes are the ingredient in Serrapeptase capsules. It is used to cut through biofilm and get to the bacteria, for Lyme disease in my case. I'm definitely going to try and make some of this. I use the farmcurious lids to ferment and have had a lot of success.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that! I know some folks with Lyme so I'll have to pass that on. I'll also have to look for the lids you mention. Thanks!
DeleteThanks for posting this! I don't have Juniper berries, so I'm just going to do some standard pickling spices for this first little batch... got to pull those tubers out of the ground and ferment them before they take over!
ReplyDeleteI should think you could flavor it any way you want! They are a great "hidden" food source, easy to care for, and like you say the are prolific. :)
DeleteCook them in water a few minuters pour out the Boiling water and put in some new and boil again. Good for the Tummy.
ReplyDeleteActually, that's a very good idea! That's how I cook my dried beans to remove the indigestible starches. Thanks!
ReplyDelete