But I guess when you tell the DW that a new food is also called “fartichoke” ….. The chances of her wanting to actually try it out goes way down. I’ll have to remember that. ==>> yeah.. you probably should .. lol.. hilarious.. thx for todays chuckle ... ken

I do not grow Swiss chard but I think Jacob does and I bet he'd be interested in the recipe. I am growing beets and I do plan to use some of the beet greens for something. Maybe beet greens could substitute? Oh, and I do love basmati rice. I think I can find the peppercorns at the Whole Foods in Tulsa. Sometimes I have to order stuff I can't find locally from Amazon. That recipe you linked does sound good and the picture says it all, doesn't it? When I had enough chokes to be able to use some to cook with, I made cashew chicken and used chokes, peeled and sliced, instead of the water chestnut. I actually preferred them in the dish as the water chestnut tastes rather.... well.... watery to me. My choke babies are still alive and in their pot, I noticed the other day there are a couple more plants up, out where I rescued the others, so I will go dig those up, too. Maybe I will have a nice crop by next spring. We have had a nice big rainfall and thankfully no violence with it, as other places have had. I'm grateful for the moisture as we seem to be going into our drought season early this year. I had a cabbage split, and brought that in, along with the last few peas before I tore out the vines. There'll be zucchini big enough to pick soon. So yeah, how 'bout that zucchini burger recipe, been searching on the internet for some different ways to use them. --ilene

If you would like a recipe that uses Jerusalem artichokes as one of the ingredients instead of the central ingredient, there is a roast chicken with Jerusalem artichoke recipe in the cookbook "Jerusalem" by Otto Lenghi. In fact he has a number of recipe using this tuber. I've not made the dish, but this cookbook and Lenghi's other cookbooks are remarkable, no recipe therein has ever disappointed me. So you've inspired me to go looking for Jerusalem artichokes and make this dish myself. Here is a blog with the recipe, and an inspiring photo - kind of chatty but you can just skip to the end for the info. https://vikalinka.com/roast-chicken-with-jerusalem-artichokes-and-lemons/ Here is a Guardian article with plenty of information and more recipes. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/feb/15/seasonal-food-jerusalem-artichokes

Thanks floral. Leaves of H. rigidus look too narrow. None of the plants had more than 1 bloom - probably down to low light conditions. When I check online, I can only find H. annuus and H. tuberosus listed as being present in Italy. ** See below It surely isn't H. annuus and H. tuberosus just doesn't feel right. Hmmm. Fof Correction & update: I should have said that H.a & H.t were the only species listed in Abruzzo. Another contender is Helianthus x laetiflorus. This though, like H rigidus/pauciflorus, is not listed in Abruzzo. If they are there next year, I'll lift one and check the roots