Do you know what vegetable this is?

These are tubers of Jerusalem artichoke or Sunchoke. I bought them from Sweet Rock Farm at farmer’s market on Saturday. I knew this root vegetable because we bought and cooked some when we frequently visited farmer’s market in Ontario, and I also harvested them at Nanoose Edibles Farm when I was working there. They are native in North America, and can be cooked and eaten the same way as potatoes. Because of high content of fiber, they won’t spike blood sugar as much as potatoes would. I dug up the edge of our garden and planted these tubers on Sunday afternoon. I hope we can see beautiful sunflower-like flowers in summer and enjoy roasted sunchoke in fall.

In our garden, collard greens are showing signs of their growth, so are radish and arugula. Komatsuna are still tiny. Our lettuce seedlings are not feeling well… I am not sure why our first batch, which was started at the end of Februaly, struggles and is not ready yet for being transplanted outside. I will transplant them outside anyway after forecasted cold temperature passes Wednesday night. We are planting lettuce, komatsuna, and mizuna weekly so we can continuously bring salad mix to the market throughout the summer.

We picked delicious kale and collards’ sprouts while cleaning up a section of our garden for potato planting and made a tofu dish on Saturday after the market. The recipe is here. It is very easy, so please try!

Our market schedule is as follows:

• Island Roots Farmers’ Market: Beban Park, 2300 Bowen Road, Nanaimo, 3 – 6pm on Wednesday
• AGI Market: AGI Hall, Gabriola, 10am – 1pm on Saturday

Thank you for reading our weekly newsletter. We will see you at the market!