Article - Why You Need To Grow Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes)

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This is a good food for preppers.

It is self propagating (meaning it is hard to eradicate if you no longer want them in your garden).

It grows well in buckets, which solves the unwanted propagation probllem.  It also let you grow them in areas where the ground is sometimes hard frozen.

How and Why:

http://thehomesteadinghippy.com/why-you-need-to-grow-sunchokes/

You may be able to start these from tubers purchased from grocery stores.  Worth a try.  If not, look for starts from nurseries.

Read the nutritional content given in the article: good food resource and needs minimal maintenance.

Be warned, they are invasive and spread outside your planting beds.  Raised beds with wooden barriers are a possible way to slow them down.  Planting in straw could work, but you will need to add soil / compost as the plants deplete what the straw cannot replace.

I would also recommend planting sweet potatoes, for similar reasons.

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Sunchokes can stay in the ground until you are ready to use them.

All through the winter as long as the ground is thawed or anytime under deep mulch. since they don't store well after harvest, this is the best way to store them.

Jersualem artichokes will spread by the roots, with no further cultivation need.

You can feel free to harvest as many tubers as you can find. you always miss some and even marble size ones will regrow a full size plant.

A bit like a starchier potato, without all the heavy carbs.

Actually they have little starch as the store inulin, a complex polyfructose which leads to a problem in that humans can not directly digest inulin  and depend of certain gut bacteria to convert it into sugars. These must be developed and cultured in the gut slowly or you will have gas pains. They make absolutely delicious french fries but slow moist cooking begins the break down into fructose and, IMO, are a bit too sweet in stews.

We have kept the same cultivar for 30 years and the only thing you really need to do is move tham to a new bed when the begin to dwindle from exhausting the soil. They don't need garden space so you can put them in an slightly enriched out of the way.

Don't forget the are a sunflower and the leaves can be eaten (even by people when young) my chickens love them. They will eat the tubers too.   

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I still intend to continue my experiment to convert Jerusalem Artichoke inulin (a complex polyfructose) into simple fructose sugar. Should be simple as acidifying dissolved inulin in water cooking it for several days then filtering and cooking it down to a syrup. maybe dehydrate that into a powder which should store and travel better).

As prolific as they can be, you could have a "value added" trade item if you keep the process confidential.  For more "added value", fermented and distilled into a licker.