Check out John's videos on Jerusalem and Chinese Artichokes, this is where I learned about them both. Another favorite is Paul Wheaton's channel. Sunchokes aka Jerusalem artichokes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD1aHQ0ZtJ4 Where did you get your Crosnes ? Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting Yacon Tubers and Chinese Artichokes aka Crosne at the Community

Green Elephant Want List last updated 2/16/12 Part sun/shade plants that bloom early or late to provide year round color & foliage (evergreen, variegated, purple) at the camp where we live. My personal favorite color is bright rose pink and least favorite is orange. We have woodland & sun gardens. Will take cuttings or potted plants. We're looking for reusable gardening materials for our Nature Center at Camp Berachah in Auburn, WA where we have a petting zoo, edible gardens, & activities for school age children attending our before/after school & summer camp programs. Our recent storm damaged our cyclone fencing, so we're using the opportunity to rebuild & expand our program. Accepting donations. Detailed want list and/or tax receipt available upon request. We want to show kids where food comes from & have a little fun in the garden with tall tepees & plants with unique colors, shapes, & names. Reusable garden materials: stakes, cages, bamboo poles, egg cartons, milk jugs, tools Perennial vegetables: Air potato, Dioscorea bulbifera Asparagus pea, Lotus tetragonobolus Chinese artichoke, Stachys affinia Good King Henry, Chenopodium bonus-henricus (AKA fat hen, Lincoln asparagus) Sea kale, Crambe maritime (fresh seeds germinate best) Cover Crops: Annual winter types: Austrain or Magnus Field Peas Pisum arvense, Crimson Clover Trifolium incarnatum, Fava or bell beans, Vicia faba Vetch: Lana, V. dasycarpa or Common, V. sativa Small grains: cereal rye, winter wheat, spelt, or barley Non-legumes: mustard Brassica juncea, rape B.napus, Arugula, or corn salad Valerianella locusta Herbs: any culinary perennial or annual Perilla, purple (Shisho or Beefsteak plant) Annuals: bloodleaf, chicken gizzard, or beefsteak plant (Iresine herbstii) Purple Lady Calendula, pink Mirabilis jalapa Limelight, 4oclock Morning glory: red/rose/pinks or Japanese Nasturtium except 'Alaska' Nicotania, pinks esp. sensation mix or dwarf Avalon mix Nicotiana x sanderae Perilla, Fantasy Plectranthus argentatus, silver spurflower Polka-dot plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya; also listed as H. sanguinolenta) Splash Select Mix Poppy: purple, pink or doubles Snapdragon, any named Sunflower that doesn�t need staking Viola Hardy Perennials: Agastache esp A. scrophularifolia (purple giant hyssop) Aquilegia (columbine) any named variety Alstroemeria Angelica gigas Chelone lyonii (pink turtlehead) Coreopsis, esp pinks Cyclamen hederifolium Daylilies: any, but esp. spiders, pinks/purples, reblooming Delosperma cooperi (hardy ice plant) Dianthus (cheddar or maiden pinks) Dictamnus (gas plant) Doroconum (leopard's bane) Echinacea, any Epimedium Eupatorium (Joe pye weed) esp. E. dubium Little Joe or E. fortunei Pink Frost (Japanese JPW) E.greggii (Perennial Texas Ageratum) Euphorbia, esp. shade tolerant types, but like all Gaillardia (blanket flower) esp. pinks like Punch Bowl & bicolors Heuchera, any Lobelia 'Queen Victoria' (cardinal flower with dark foliage/red flowers) Pachysandra Papaver orientale (oriental poppy) esp. bright colors � can be root cuttings Phlox divaricata (woodland phlox) Primula (primrose) any, esp. P. japonica or P. sieboldi Ratibida columnifera Prairie Coneflower, that�s not yellow Rudbeckia, any commerical named esp. bicolors Tiarella Tinantia erecta, widows tears Tricyrtis (toadlily) Shrubs (esp. dwarf foundation types): Aucuba japonica (Japanese Aucuba) Berberis (barberry) esp. dwarf red, orange, or evergreen types Hamamelis (witch hazel) esp. Jolena, Ruby Glow, Fire Charm Lespedeza thunbergii, (Thunberg bush clover) Leucothoe fontanesia (Drooping Leucothoe) Lindera benzoin (spice bush) Nandina (heavenly bamboo) esp. dwarf or smaller types Osmanthus heterophyllus (aquifolium) Goshiki� Ornamental Grasses: Carex, Chasmanthium latifolium (northern sea oats) esp. variegated one, Miscanthus, & others Vines: any part sun/shade noninvasive perennial or annual sun plants with bright colors: Iresine herbstii Aureoreticulata, Formosa, Blazin Rose

If you google CROSNES or Stachys affinis, you'll find quite a few sources for tubers or plants, some quite cheap. BTW, you would only need one or 2 oz to get started as they spread very fast. The cellared ones at the farmers market would probably be ok. Rose-Marie

[I have seen nothing to indicate a potential crash in the fruit market, as you propose.] I wrote that production was collapsing, not the market itself. If you have fruit to sell and you can ship it to Tokyo you'll get about $10-20/lb if it's any good, which is why the few cherries left for sale in Washington are usually culls and go for about $4/lb. The Chinese farmer of 1 generation ago is now the Chinese factory worker making clothes and kitsch to sell into the USA through seller financing of the trade deficit. That factory worker's ancestors might have eaten apples, grapes, oranges, or litchees, but she eats highly fractionated foods--she might for example drink water mixed with corn syrup, citric and malic acids, and yellow food coloring, that comes in a bottle with a picture of an apple on it. The truck farms that used to surround Chinese major cities are long gone, replaced with factories, shopping malls, and the Chinese equivalent of American 'burbs. This is a global phenomenon. The economies that didn't get the industrialization are either collapsing completely (Zimbabwe--yet another globalization scheme that failed), or are turning into plantation operations for global commodities (Mexico and Chile). Chile and to a lesser degree Mexico still do grow fruit for export, because the national currencies are still cheap enough to make it feasible. Fruit and especially tree fruit production is hard to commoditize. Globalization is not destiny, contrary to Thomas Friedman (a paid spokesman); it is a design to support credit hedgemony.