[NAFEX] some Yacon questions
Ginda Fisher
list at ginda.us
Sun Jan 20 13:46:11 EST 2008
On Jan 20, 2008, at 11:46 AM, John S wrote:
> S.,
>
> I store JA in a zip lock bag (sealed) immediately after harvest and
> cleaning in the fridge probably around 40 degrees. Low temp and
> high humidity seem to work well for me. If I leave JA unsealed for
> a day or two, you can see them shrivel. In the fridge, they last a
> long time. I've had bags of them last more than a year.
>
My father used to grow Jerusalem Artichokes, and he also stored them
in a zip-lock bag in the fridge. They lasted forever - certainly
until spring, by which time we usually finished eating them.
Beware that JA is very invasive, at least here in eastern Mass. My
father was warned, and he sank 18" of sheet metal around the JA bed
before he planted it. That kept most of them contained. The first
year he planted about 6 tubers, and was careful not to remove then
all at harvest. The next year he had about a zillion plants growing,
so after that he harvested by digging up the plot and removing every
JA tuber he could find. The next spring they would come up so close
it almost looked like a single plant, sort of a giant hedge that grew
almost fast enough to see it.
They were very ugly plants, always covered with aphids, but as that
didn't seem to impede their growth or productivity in any way, he
never bothered to do anything about the aphids. Eventually he
decided eating them gave him too much gas, so he decided to get rid
of them. It took a couple years of (1) harvesting every tuber he
could find in the fall and (2) pulling up all the ones he noticed
growing in the spring to eradicate them.
Ginda
More information about the nafex
mailing list