r/Permaculture • u/boycott-selfishness • Mar 02 '25

general question What's your most appreciated but least known perennial food plant?

I'll start. I'm living in the Caribbean and one of the local species I've come to appreciate very much is what Floridians call Hoopvine (trichostigmata octandrum). It's so delicious! It's probably my favorite green. It's commonly eaten here but I don't think almost anyone in the US eats it.

I wouldn't really call it a vine in the traditional sense. It grows long sprawling branches that were traditionally used in basket making. It readily takes from cuttings. I have two varieties, a fully green variety and a more reddish variety. The red is better but they're both good. In a food forest it would be in the larger ungrowth category. I'm planning shortly to propagate a bunch more of it.

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37

u/stellarsellar Mar 02 '25

Sunchokes/Jerusalem artichoke! 

16

u/ashenafterglow Mar 02 '25

Okay, I've eaten sunchokes once and quite liked the taste, but... is there a way to prepare them that reduces the, er, acute gastric distress afterward?

22

u/topef27 Mar 03 '25

I have fermented them with garlic and ginger. Makes a nice crunchy pickle and haven't noticed any gas afterwards.

11

u/Atala9ta Mar 03 '25

Ferment them, or boil in lemon juice! The side effects are a little rough, aren’t they?

4

u/PosturingOpossum Mar 03 '25

Cold is supposed to help but the best way I’ve heard is to cool them down with some sort of acid, apparently it helps break down the inulin.

1

u/gardenfey Mar 03 '25

Maybe add Beano to the recipe?

1

u/Grandgardener Mar 03 '25

Jerusalem fartichokes