Any chance of begging a few tubers from you? I can’t find any of the varieties you listed on North American sites. I’d love to try Gute Gelbe and Topstar.
If you have any websites to direct me to that aren’t in Germany (import issues, probably) I’d be very grateful.
I always heard them called fartichokes. I had a big crop one year, and gave some to the community garden volunteer, who gave a couple to his German Shepherd dog, with unbelievable results, and not in a good way, he said.
It was 91 today. Downright depressing
LOL!!! 
Nasty source of greenhouse gasses! I once gave my Siberian Husky some stuffed cabbage with similar backfiring.
One very interesting thing about sun chokes, Jerusalem Artichokes: they can be a perennial, low input source of ethanol, better than corn. The inulin in the tubers can be converted into sugars by boiling in acidic solution. Then, limestone added to adjust the pH within the tolerances of yeast. The fermented “sun choke wine” can be distilled into fuel alcohol. If memory serves, potential production exceeds 600 gallons of ethanol per acre. This source of fuel doesn’t need nearly the fertilizers or pesticides required for corn production and it does not compete with food or livestock use, unlike corn.
I’m not growing Sun Chokes in my yard any more. Since Oikos Tree Crops has closed shop, I’ve realized how hard some of these are to find. I grew a bunch when working for Barboursville Vineyards. In 2018, I retired and don’t know if the vineyard has maintained them, but I’ll look into it. I’m also trying to contact Ken Asmus and will see if he’s still growing them.
Yum! Young favas, before the skins toughen, just aren’t in the stores around here. Glad the harvests are coming in before the really hot weather arrives!
It’s rare that anyone brings all the Sugar Snaps inside; there’s the “gardener’s tax”!
Oooh, I can’t wait to try growing sunchokes again. I had remarkable results when I last planted one nubbin a fellow community gardener gave me years ago. The thing took off like wildfire and filled almost my entire plot with duplicate nubbins. Had to dig out the entire space and filled two five gallon buckets with the harvest. Unfortunately they were the extremely crenellated type with all kinds of nooks and crannies for dirt to get stuck in. I do love them, though!
That’s very kind of you to look into this.
Thanks for the information on sunchokes and ethanol. I never knew.
Your seedlings look so good! One day I’m gonna get my indoor set up refined like this; my seedlings are leggy and sad (but hopeful!). 
I was all set to take advantage of my local city’s potting soil offering from our wastewater treatment facility (TAGRO) but I just read this new information on biosolids so I’m rethinking it. What kind of soil or mix do y’all fill your garden plots with at home?
Most interesting! I wonder why it hasn’t been tried on a large scale. Maybe they need more water than corn does? I dunno.
Beautiful! What is on the far left? It looks familiar. Is it tarragon? I want to grow tarragon, but it might be a lot larger than I’ve planned!
Yes, it’s French Tarragon. I grow it in 5 gallon pots, and thus far have had good luck keeping it between 18 and 24".
I don’t know why, but the French Tarragon and Russian Tarragon I’ve grown from seeds and plants don’t taste as good as the tarragon from the store. I don’t know if it’s my terroir. I’ve tried the last 5 years, different seeds, different plants.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think Russian tarragon is for eating. I’ve not been successful with the French version. Figures. Shrugs (no good shrugging emoticons! )
Also, I’ve read you can’t grow French tarragon from seed. Not so?
I’ve two tarragon plants. One dates back several years. A co-worker gave me a plant. I initially planted it in the ground, where it grew much taller. I’ve since dug it up and moved town with it, growing it in a pot ever since. I also split the roots once about 5 years ago, without issue. I don’t know anything about its lineage, but of the two plants, it is the more aromatic of the two.
The other is a French Tarragon as marketed by Territorial Seed. It was purchased as a start (it must be propagated and not started from seed). It is taller than the other, with slightly bigger, softer leaves, and as I mentioned, a little less aromatic.
I’ve never seen a full flower on either. Whenever I see it start to bud, I cut the buds off. I whack them back fully each fall, and they’ve been very reliable about returning in the spring.
I don’t use tarragon for cooking all that often, but I like keeping a nice variety of herbs in the garden “just in case”. 
