"Cooks like potatoes"; can be eaten raw, too.
The sunchoke ($4.00 per pound) is the edible tuber of a species of sunflower; "girasole," Italian for "sunflower," is the likely source of the tuber's other common name, Jerusalem artichoke. The flavor does suggest artichoke, but the crunchiness brings to mind water chestnut, too; if you cook them at all, steaming rather than roasting or boiling is better for safeguarding the texture.
And like the artichoke, the sunchoke stores a carbohydrate called inulin rather than starch, which not everyone digests comfortably. Better to experiment with a small portion before you dig in wholeheartedly.
Berried Treasure Farm
Cooks Falls, New York
607-498-4666
At the Union Square Greenmarket, roughly from March to Thanksgiving
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