[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



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