Gardening

A fist-sized tuber produces an 8 ft tall plant by late August. Very impressed with the rapid growth of my batch (the fact they are downstream of the chicken coop probably help with fertilization).

We have black, loamy soil with a bit of clay, but I've seen them grow at my dad's farm in heavier soils than ours.

I haven't eaten any tubers, but my dad did, and he said they tasted OK, a lot like water chestnuts. One problem: he had BAD gas issues after eating them, which is common due to the inulin content.

Propagation is simple: dig up the tubers and snap them into potato-sized pieces in fall, then plant where you want them to grow.