turkeytaker - I have an order coming in shortly and I'd be happy to send you some when they arrive. I'm sure I'll be able to spare a few tubors of them. Ended up purchasing more than I need lol. I've been looking for them for a while also and ended up with a nice trade of them, however they froze on the way in the mail as they went parcel post instead of priority. So they were gooey muck when I received them. I would be very interested in a heuchera or two :) I'm not receiving any emails generated via GW, but my email address is visible for members. Please email direct.

I posted this quote several years ago when a poster named "Slashie" (I think...) had a posting going on JAs. The plants contain a substance called inulin, which cannot be broken down by the human digestive system, which can cause flatulence and, in some cases, gastric pain. Gerard's Herbal, printed in 1621, quotes the English planter John Goodyer on Jerusalem artichokes: "which way soever 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." Inulin is a carbohydrate which has to be broken down to fructose and then conversted to glucose. From some of the references I have seen (I'm not a medical professional...) this can be beneficial for diabetics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inulin I bought some tubers one year from Gurney's and planted them in a cinderblock box so they couldn't escape and they have created a nice stand in the backyard near the alley. They are like tall, small sunflowers. Rather weedy looking though but I refuse to cut them down. I dug some up once and they spoiled quickly on the counter. Very thin skins. It is said not to boil them as they will become mush but rather to steam or bake them. I've never eaten them. Guess I should try them again.

For those of you who want to eat J.A. and not suffer the side effects, you may also want to try an enzyme supplement such as Omnigest or a similar product prior to eating them. It's similar in nature to Beano, but these products (there are several brands, available at any pharmacy, and relatively inexpensive)have enzymes to digest many types of complex carbs, fats, and proteins as well. The brand I've used, Omnigest, is not at all unpleasant to chew, (just bland, not chalky or anything) and really does help a lot. I learned about this stuff after abdominal surgery, and it really does work. Costs about $5 to $6 for a bottle which would do 3 meals a day for about two weeks, so it's obviously pretty cheap. It also does help a lot to pre-boil the sliced J.A.'s in a couple of changes of water first, too, as this gets some of the extra inulin and other complex carbs leached out.

Yesterday I harvested so of my yams, the white winged were ready the purple winged yamms are still growing. I fried some up for dinner like potato and didn't tell the girls it was yam and not potato. Then asked how were your potatoes. They said great. Tomorrow I will tell them it was my yam. DG what is chow chow?