turning to the sun

if only all plants were as wonderful as the jerusalem artichoke

where else would you get: a cut flower, a seasonal windbreak, endless kilos of compostable material, delicious food?

and i love their contrariness….neither from Jerusalem nor an artichoke, but a sunflower, originally named Girasole after the italian for ‘sunflower’, originally meaning ‘turning to the sun’, and linguistic laziness took its course

ridiculously high in potassium, iron, fibre, niacin, thiamine, phosphorus and copper, and a wonderfully tasty source of carbohydrate, jerusalem artichokes are enjoying something of a revival….but there is, of course, their reputation for digestive disturbance….English planter John Goodyer, in Gerard’s Herbal 1621: “which waysoever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men”…perhaps Mr Goodyer spent a tad too much time near the dressing up box as a child, but there’s no getting away from their guffgiving qualities , if not quite up there with Iceland Muesli

the problem for some lies in the inability of our starch-digesting enzymes to break down the carbohydrate (inulin)…only in the colon does bacteria begin to metabolise the starch which releases carbon dioxide and (more pertinently) methane….fortunately the more frequently you eat them the more effectively the body deals with the starch: not only cause for celebration (unless you are male and between the ages of 6 and 16), but an invitation to eat more of this most underrated of vegetables

steam rather than boil, make soup, crisps or the finest risotto you’ll ever eat