I have the chinese style fermentation jar- it is a clear glass one. I have had it going since last year I think. I looked up how to start it and put in a variety of vehetables and chili to start. It has a little lightly crushed garlic clove, sliced ginger, Sichuan peppercorn, sugar, salt (brine), liquor to top off. Probably forgetting some things. I absolutely love carrots and celery from it. Garlic scapes are amazing. And now sunchoke!
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I really like this style because it is a built in airlock. I have the tendancy to forget about ferments and they usually spoil. This is forgiving… and it helps that I love really sour/strong pickles.
You can keep what you put in for long periods of time, but if you want, it also ferments quickly after it gets going. You can ferment something in as little as three days sometimes. Quick pickles! Just depends on your taste preference!
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prehaps you can dehydrate them in bloom and sell them as dried flowers. should look nice for harvest/holloween time.
For my other fall bloomers i trim different chunks theoighout the summer which staggers bloom time, no idea how this effects tuber development though…
They so have some dwarf flowering varieties too
The deer trim them during their entire growing period. They still flower at the same time.
I’ve tried using them as cut flowers and unfortunately the petals fall off if you just look at them wrong.
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prehaps another dual use Sunflower like Yacon
Daila’s are yacons selected for the bloom but othewise they are the same plant. Edible storage tubers but more basic sunflowers flowers.
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Different genus, but same family. I wouldn’t go so far as to call them the same plant. Being of hybrid origin, domestic Dahlia are quite variable in tuber eating qualities.
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Does anyone know if cultivariable is sold out for the season or if they bring ja back in stock before spring? I thought to get some named ones this season to compare with grocery store, but either December was too late to look, or he doesn’t update the site? Tried emailing, but crickets. Stampede and fusea.
His last blog post mentions that Sunchokes don’t seem to give him enough seed to offer every year yet. So maybe he had a bad seed year. Same with ulluco and mashua. He will no longer be offering tubers of any kind (some sort of soil disease) or yacon seeds. At least as of July 2025.
Side question: do regular grocery stores sell sunchokes in your area, or is it like farmer’s markets/speciality stores? I have never seen them in stores.
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I see sunchoak tubers regularly at Whole Foods and H-mart. I can reship them to anyone in need.
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I got mine from rock bridge trees. They have a good selection and packed my bags full
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My Organic Market (MOMs) often has them in winter. I didn’t think to grow them until last year.
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Wow, they have free shipping? And so many options. Thanks for posting about them. Excited to see how others compare with “grocery store”
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Earlier in this thread, I voiced a concern that too much fructose from fruit might be bad for us health wise.
I guess the answer is, Not necessarily. . . . The research discussed in the linked YouTube suggests that the starch inulin may effectively “inoculate” the consumer from the potential harms of excess fructose. That’s comforting because inulin is itself a chain of fructose molecules, so I also wondered whether eating inulin would make the fructose burden worse. It appears just the opposite.
Of course, inulin is abundant in Jerusalem artichokes.
Fructose is terrible for you. And this is not dogging on high fructose corn syrup. Which is 55% fructose 45% glucose vs sucrose which is 50/50
Alcohol and Fructose both have very similar processing pathways that can only be done in the liver which bypasses glucose and go directly to fatty acids. Which in the Standard American Diet (SAD) is then hit with insulin from other carbohydrates to trigger storage.
The idea that inulin is somehow protective would be based on feeding your microbiome an over abundance of it such that the microbes consume it first and bypass your liver having to do it.
Microbes that consume fructose or inulin they produce short chain fatty acids. Just like your liver does.
I and a few others here espouse the ketogenic diet. Which should make us crazy for being also fruit obsessed. But when it comes down to it being ketogenic most of the time and being limited to fruit in season is how fruit was meant to be eaten.
Also being ketogenic is means your body runs on fats and fatty acid. When I eat fructose or alcohol rather then glucose my liver turns it into my primary fuel. With no insulin spikes I burn it off with no worries about alcoholic or non alcoholic fatty liver or any think fructose fear mongers would worry about. Cept slightly lower alcohol tolerances.
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This is false. For people on a normal diet, the threshold for harm observed in controlled trials is 50 g per day or higher. That’s 10 apples per day or more. On the other hand, for an advocate of a ketogenic diet, fructose is a problem because fructose disrupts ketogenesis.
I didn’t want to waste time crafting a response, so I turned to ChatGPT:
Bottom line assessment
The claim “fructose is terrible for you” is incorrect in general.
A more accurate statement:
Large amounts of added fructose — especially from sugar-sweetened beverages and ultra-processed foods — are metabolically harmful and contribute directly to fatty liver, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and hypertension.
Fructose from whole fruit is not harmful and is associated with better health outcomes.
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First
Fructose is terrible for you is colorful language not a hard inditement. Terrible is not exactly quanfityable value.
Your quantifiable values are however quite indicatable and I will go to Chat GPT for that.
Short answer: about 21–22 grams of fructose in a 12-oz can of cola.
Here’s the breakdown so you can see where that number comes from:
- A standard 12 oz can of cola contains ~39 grams of total sugar
- In the U.S., cola is typically sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS-55)
- HFCS-55 is roughly:
- 55% fructose
- 45% glucose
Math
- 39 g sugar × 0.55 ≈ 21.5 g fructose
- 39 g sugar × 0.45 ≈ 17.5 g glucose
Important context
- Fructose is metabolized almost entirely by the liver
- ~20+ g in one sitting is already above what the liver comfortably handles
- That’s why soda has a stronger association with fatty liver and triglyceride spikes than starch or glucose-heavy carbs
If you want, I can:
- Compare this to fruit, juice, or honey
- Explain why HFCS vs sucrose matters
- Put this in context of daily fructose thresholds
50g is of course just about 2.5 12oz cans of cola per day.
And while whole fruit are of course lower in total calories. That’s not how the majority of fruit is consumed the values of juice as provided by ChatGPT
Here’s a clear, apples-to-apples look at fruit juice, using the same 12 oz serving as the cola example.
Key point up front: fruit juice often delivers as much or more fructose than soda, just without fiber.
Fructose in 12 oz of Common Fruit Juices (Approx.)
Apple Juice
- Total sugar: ~36–39 g
- Fructose: 22–24 g
Very similar to cola, sometimes higher
Grape Juice
- Total sugar: ~45–48 g
- Fructose: 23–25 g
- One of the highest fructose loads
Pear Juice
- Total sugar: ~42–45 g
- Fructose: 26–28 g
- Highest fructose of common juices
Orange Juice
- Total sugar: ~33–36 g
- Fructose: 16–18 g
- Lower fructose ratio than apple/grape
Pineapple Juice
- Total sugar: ~32–34 g
- Fructose: 14–16 g
Cranberry Juice (cocktail)
- Total sugar: ~38–40 g
- Fructose: 18–20 g
- Often sweetened in addition to fruit sugar
Direct Comparison (12 oz)
- Cola (HFCS): ~21–22 g fructose
- Apple juice: ~22–24 g
- Grape juice: ~23–25 g
- Pear juice: ~26–28 g
So yes — many juices match or exceed soda in fructose load.
Why Juice Hits Harder Than Whole Fruit
- No fiber → faster absorption
- Liquid sugar → easier to overconsume
- Fructose goes straight to the liver, regardless of source
To put it in perspective:
- You’d need 2–3 whole apples (with chewing + fiber) to equal the fructose in one glass of apple juice
I though we discussed banning ChatGPT and AI in the forum 2 years ago.
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Most people would prefer accurate language.
BTW you’ve convinced me that ketones do not support optimal brain activity.
Whats with the language. This is not typical here.
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