Tag Archives: Jerusalem artichoke

Centretown United Church and Ottawa snowchokes

Last night, the wonderful folks of Ottawa had what was advertised as “A night with Stephen Barstow”.  A great communicative crowd too and thanks for making my book load considerably lighter! I’ll come back and finish my story sometime soon :)
Last time I was in the city I talked in All Saints Church! Thanks all! Hope to see many more perennials next time!

Stavanger and around

After my weekend course in Haugaland, member of Norwegian Seed Savers, Tone Lise Østboe kindly showed me around gardens in Stavanger and we also visited Rogaland arboretum outside the city and also a producer of bumble bees for the greenhouse industry!
Thanks very much Tone Lise :)

Garden pictures 24th-25th September 2016

A collection of pictures from last weekend in the garden!

 

Perennial veggie quiche 2014

Almost 2 years ago on 29th April 2014, this quiche features perennial vegetables, starring Hablitzia / Stjernemelde, Allium victorialis / Seiersløk, Ground Elder / Skvallerkål, Stinging Nettle / Brennesle, Garlic / Hvitløk and homegrown chili, with a 100% wholemeal barley, rye and spelt crust, parmesan cheese and served with Jerusalem artichokes and Blue Congo potato and topped with dried with dried Alpine Bistort / Harerug bulbils!! Doesn’t get much better!!

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3rd year Paolo JA crosses

P1510276 P1510270 P1510277This is the 3rd year of growing Paolo Gaiardelli‘s first year Dayneutral x wild Italian crosses – harvested today! I’ve selected 5 interesting looking tubers to grow for a 4th year before deciding whether to keep them!

Here’s a Norwegian article about the project:  http://www.skogoglandskap.no/nyheter/2013/krysninger_mellom_vill_italiensk_og_norsk_jordskokk/newsitem

Harvesting the fartichokes

I gave up waiting for a serious frost and harvested the first of my jerusalem artichokes today. Might as well do it while the weather is still good (JA harvest is for me synonymous with frozen fingers!). With the long mild autumn, the yield of Dave’s Shrine (long red, spreading variety) was above average, although the plants didn’t manage to flower (they sometimes almost flower, but nowhere near it this year).

I found the following description on the net from “Taylor’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables”:
Dave’s Shrine (Judy’s Red or Wolcottonian Red) was collected by Dave Briars of Craftsbury, Vermont. Long (3-4 in.), fat tubers have beautiful bronzy purple skins; ivory –coloured flesh contains lots of dry matter, which gives this variety a “saltier”, more meaty taste than other chokes.

The white variety is Stampede which is probably identical to Bianca and Norwegian Dagnøytral (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=2669)
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Stampede=Dayneutral=Dwarf Sunray=Bianca

Stampede is a North American Jerusalem Artichoke variety , the name alluding to the fact that it is fast growing . Here’s the description in Cornucopia II.
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Stampede still in flower on 24th October 2015

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I first grew a variety called Dagnøytral (Dayneutral) which was long recognised as the best variety here in Norway as, unlike other varieties, it produces good yields in our long days (hence the name). I was later given  a variety from Sweden called Bianca (Bianka). introduced to Scandinavia from Russia in the 1970s by a well known Swedish veggie gardener here called Ake Truedsson. They were for me identical, flowering at the same time and morphologically difficult to tell apart, both with knobbly tubers. Next I got Dwarf Sunray from Danish Seed Savers (in 2004) and that also developed to an identical plant  :)

Reading the description of Stampede in Cornucopia II (picture), I began to wonder if all originated from / were identical to that Native American variety, so I asked on the Homegrown Goodness forum if anyone could send me a tuber. In December 2008 I received 3 tubers from Bunkie Weir in the US and, guess what, the flower buds of the Russian, Canadian and Norwegian plants emerged in perfect synchronicity!

According to Truedsson, Bianka is a widespread variety in Russia, perhaps taken there by Vavilov? Not surprising really that such a superior variety (yieldwise at least) should have spread around the world!

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