Clearing some of our gardens to do a winter planting, we pulled out some tall plants we were wondering what they were...seems they are Jerusalem Artichokes. Have yet to find anything palatable to do with them.
My folks planted them, we ate them. Bland, sorta like a cross between water chestnuts and potatoes. Sliced in a stir fry or raw in salads. Easy to grow was main feature.
They also go by the name, Jerusalem [censored]-a-choke. The vegetable is made of a carbohydrate called inulin instead of the tuber's typical starch, and inulin has an Ex-Lax-like effect on the human digestive system—we can't digest it naturally, so our gut bacteria go to town.