I'm in west-central Pennsylvania, zone 5 and in the heart of one of the most forgotten and maligned plants of North America. That would be Helianthus Tuberosus. A perennial sibling of the annual Sunflower. They're also known as Jerusalem Artichokes, Sunchokes, Sunroots, Fartichokes and numerous other names around the world.
The entire plant is edible, though the partially mature stems are way too tough and fibrous to be human food. Starting at the bottom with the tubers, I'll work my way up the plant. The tubers ... They can be white skinned, tan or red or purple. They can be smooth and look like carrots or they can be so knobby as to look more tumerous than ginger root. They can be sweet and nutty, just nutty or obnoxiously turnipy/herbal flavored. I have three varieties. One is a white skinned, terribly knobby, sweet and nutty flavored tuber. They're a bear to clean. Most knobs have to be cut or broken off to get all the dirt. The second one has reddish skin, fairly smooth, easy to clean and is a bit nuttier tasting. They look like small sweet potatoes. The third one is a white skinned, carrot sized and shaped tuber with such a nasty strong turnipy/herbal taste that just one chunked into a large pot of soup or stew leaves a bit much of it's flavor. They also stink up the kitchen when they're cooking.
The white knobbies are under a 6' top. The red skins are under an 8' top and those white nasty ones are under a 12' top.
Young stalks, up to about 12" can be cut and treated just like asparagus or other sprout greens. As I said above, the older stalks are too tough to do much with unless you have cattle, deer, goats etc. around that get into the patch.. The leaves vary from less than palm sized to larger than triple hand sized. They also have a hairy, lightly bristly texture. They can be boiled or steamed. Five minutes + and the hairy texture is gone. They taste just like squash, a dab of butter and YUM! The large variety's leaves can easily be used like grape leaves as wraps in Mediterranean cooking.
In case of a SHTF scenario and heart and blood meds become scarce or expensive, those leaves contain trace amounts of salicylic acid - raw aspirin and coumarin - raw Coumadin or Warfarin. They can be dried, steeped for tea and concentrated for those needing such meds.
The tubers contain high amounts of a soluble starch called Inulin. No, not inSulin, that's a hormone diabetics need. Inulin is a prebiotic. That means it feeds the good bacteria in your guts. For those who have 'out of whack' gut health, and who, eating our 'modern' and highly processed diet, doesn't?? That means their nickname of Fartichoke is well earned. On the plus side, regularly eating small helpings of fresh tubers can get your guts back on track. If you just can't handle the Inulin, there are four ways to deal with it; Freezing. Cooking with an acidic ingredient. Cooking for a few hours as in a slowcooker. Fermenting. These processes convert the Inulin into Fructose. That means the gas is gone and the tubers become sweeter.
There is another way to deal with the Inulin. My wife and I take a daily supplement of Inulin for our gut health. Once your gut bacteria get properly balanced, the gas issue (pardon the pun!) is history, as are some other problems you might suffer from.
Our fall harvest mostly gets canned as pickles, relishes and the like. The vinegar and the canning process converts the Inulin and we're not afraid of giving presents of 'choke pickles to others. Other tubers we roast, fry, stir-fry (they're a lot like water chestnuts!), boil, boil and mash, dehydrate and make flour in a food processor and we snack on them raw. We have to make sure though that we don't slip up and give any to friends.
The spring harvest, after a long winter freeze gives us safe tubers we can prepare for friends.
I've also made wine from flower broth, petals and all, and tuber broth. The flower wine is earthy, rich and I like it as is. My wife doesn't - More for me! It also blends very well with fruity wines. The tuber wine I have to play with. It's a bit stout for a drinking wine but it too blends well with fruit wines and is a good cooking wine. The French developed a great Liqueur from the tubers called Topinambur.
