‘Bleah… If I ever see another Jerusalem artichoke…’

Western Morning News columnist Gillian Molesworth has got it in for the humble Jerusalem artichoke.

They leer at me from their growing colony in the refrigerator. I’ve roast them, I’ve souped them, I’ve shredded them. My family has suffered digestive consequences. No one will touch them now, no matter what I do.

Gillian is one of Camel CSA’s loyal weekly veg box customers. It’s not as if she’s stuck for a recipe for artichokes. It’s just that she’s had enough.

Well, I’ve got bad news for her: we’ve just planted a large bed of them as a windbreak (!) for our soft fruit area.

In the meantime I suggest she puts her unwanted artichokes on the compost heap along with the swedes that are piling up in her veg rack. Unless she wants to try them raw?

But I hope she resists the temptation to buy out-of-season vegetables that have been flown halfway around the world. As Gillian concludes, what we eat is a question of moral and not just digestive fibre.

Stuck for a recipe idea for Jerusalem artichokes?

Jerusalem artichokes are a staple item in Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s weekly veg boxes at this time of year.

Unlike late winter brassicas, which are in short supply all over the UK, these knobbly roots seem to thrive in hard, frosty conditions. Our growing team are about to plant a new permanent bed of them to sustain us in future seasons.

Jerusalem artichokes are hardy perennials, related to sunflowers. They have attractive purple flowers and tall summer growth, so we’ll be using them as a windbreak (!) for our soft fruit area.

Camel CSA’s valiant volunteer picking and packing team dig up quantities of them and scrub them clean each week for the boxes - to accompanying groans from some of our members.

So what can you do with these often-neglected vegetables?

My perennial favourite is Jane Grigson’s Palestine Soup, though this is a bit of a misnomer. Veggies should  leave the bacon out.

My family also like Nigel Slater’s casserole of artichokes and pork for deepest winter, which uses sausages. It sounds a bit odd but is a surprisingly good heartwarmer on a cold frosty evening.

The vegetarians among you could try Yotam Ottolenghi’s artichoke and goat’s cheese souffle or Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Roast Jerusalem artichoke, hazelnut and goat’s cheese salad.

So give Jerusalem artichokes a try. They’re flavoursome, versatile, easy to grow, should be local (if you’re living in the UK) and inexpensive.  But be warned – a little goes a long way.

Seasonal local food recipe No 72: A casserole of artichokes and pork for deepest winter

The gentle, smoky flavour of this heart-warming recipe by Nigel Slater comes from the Jerusalem artichokes. It’s a perfect antidote to the cold winter weather we’re having in Cornwall at the moment. Find it in his cookbook Tender Volume 1.

Preparation / cooking: one hour

Serves: 4

Ingredients
8 really good pork sausages
olive oil
4 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
250g small mushrooms
500g Jerusalem artichokes
1 large lemon
1 tsp fennel seeds
light stock or water to cover – about 500ml
a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Steamed cavolo nero, spring cabbage or purple sprouting broccoli, to serve

Method
Brown the sausages all over in a little oil in a deep casserole. Set aside. Peel the onions and cut them into thick segments, then add to the pan in which you browned the sausages, pouring in a little more oil if you need to. Let the onions soften over a moderate heat till they are tender enough to crush with a wooden spoon. Don’t hurry this; it should take about 15 to 20 minutes. Peel and finely slice the garlic and add it to the onions. Halve the mushrooms and add them too.

Peel or simply scrub the artichokes, then cut them in half. Add them to the pan, pushing the onions aside, and let them colour slightly. Now tip the sausages back into the pan. Cut the lemon into fat chunks and tuck them in along with the fennel seeds and a good seasoning of salt and black pepper.

Pour over enough stock or water to cover and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the vegetables are truly tender. If there is too much liquid, turn up the heat and let it reduce a little. Stir in the parsley, check the seasoning and eat with the greens.

First signs of spring in North Cornwall

What a relief to see snowdrops emerging in the woods between St Mabyn and St Kew Highway.

The ground is far too cold and saturated with melted ice and snow for us to start work yet on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s vegetable plot.

Once the earth warms up in late February / early March our volunteer growing team can begin preparing the ground, spreading compost and planting seed into cells to go in the polytunnel. 

In the meantime we’re continuing to harvest our own parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots as well as the remaining onions and shallots in store.  The rest of the weekly veg box contents are being sourced locally from growers in the immediate area.

In this week’s veg boxes …

A first appearance for our own Camel CSA Jerusalem artichokes.  Contrarily, they’re neither artichoke nor from Jerusalem but a sunflower, originally named girasole after the Italian for sunflower and that name morphed into Jerusalem. Their supposed similarity in taste to artichoke gave them the rest of their name.

In the small boxes:

* onions (Camel CSA)
* Jerusalem artichokes (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow, St Mabyn)
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)

Medium boxes also have:

* parsnips
ball-headed cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)

* = grown to organic principles

Fresh shoots

We shifted a mountain of compost in glorious sunshine on Easter Sunday.  Beetroot seed and red onion sets were sown in the new growing beds.

Special thanks to our three expert growers – Jane, Jeremy and Mark – and to volunteers Antonina, Catherine, Charlotte, Danni, Mike H and Mike S.

We hope to see even more of you between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m next Sunday.

Camel CSA - why we got involved

Watch our latest video to find out why some of us decided to get involved.