Finding your niche

Generational trauma and the need to grow a Trendy Thing that doesn't work for you.

In my kitchen for the last four weeks, have sat a little pot of jerusalem artichokes. I have a lot of jerusalem artichokes- the problem

with them is that they have a perpetual need for fresh soil as well as movement around their roots. They also grow from tiny tubers left in the soil. So, when my potted jerusalem artichokes made a half hearted effort to live and then disappeared, I did what I always do, and donated the soil in the pot to the garden. Then I needed soil to build up different parts of the garden, and that soil was moved around a bit. Now I have three enormous patches of jerusalem artichokes.

I initially got these artichokes because they are an absolute nutritional powerhouse. They also have all sorts of fibre, minerals and inulin, which support your gut health in a somewhat extreme, fast, positive way (this is why people call them ‘fartichokes’- crass! But these things absolutely blitz through your digestive system and out the other side, so you can get quite gassy). I have a few people in my life with awful gut problems and I thought I would chuck them into the roasting tray every time we did roast veges, no one would be the wiser, everyone would be healthier.

Partly because I don’t commit well to a recipe and partly because I am extremely time poor, my trays of roasted veggies came out looking fantastic except for the vaguely chewy, gross tasting jerusalem artichokes, and I kid you not, I have specifically been asked never to cook them again. (It has been a few years so I am going to try to sneak them back in again, this time with perhaps a little more testing/recipe/effort, so here they are on the bench.)

Not my garden obviously- the storm has destroyed any hope of giving you a good picture. Source

Here we have this incredibly healthy, good quality thing that is of architectural and aesthetic benefit in your garden, and the only thing you need to do to keep it around is to keep eating it! Oooof but it is so hard. I just don’t know if I can. I have the ick.

My Feud with Foragers

I have this joke with a few of my clients who have done foraging workshops. You can eat dandelion leaves! You can eat substantial amounts of black nightshade- it’s a staple in some countries. You can eat the roots of rengarenga!

Mmmmm do you want to, though? Like, if I was to plant some lettuce or spinach, I wouldn’t even have to remove the dandelion plant, and I was to offer you the option of an extremely bitter, white-liquid filled dandelion leaf compared to these delicious made-for-human-consumption leaves, which one would you go for?

Are you foraging because it is a fun thing to do, and the food is a bonus? Or are you foraging out of the belief that it’s fun to eat plants that are generally less enjoyable to eat than other plants?

You know what you can forage, which does taste pretty good? Trad. fluminensis- wandering willie. Tastes like lettuce. And it is ABUNDANT.