Jerusalem artichokes are thriving in Maitland's wet soil, outperforming potatoes

Oakhampton farmer Austin Breiner has nothing but praise for the Jerusalem artichoke after the root vegetable absolutely thrived in his wet soil and grew so well it outperformed the potato.

The artichoke is actually a relative of the sunflower and this is the first time Mr Breiner has planted it.

After losing multiple crops this year in the big wet, the artichoke's success has been a huge win.

"All my early stuff died from all the rain and I had to replant," he said.

"These are yielding higher than potatoes yield, but they are a lot harder to clean - you've got to hose them and do all sorts of things with them to try to get the dirt off them."

The artichokes grow about 2.5 metres tall and produce a mass of flowers that are much smaller than a sunflower.

"When they die off, underneath you've got a massive amount of big swollen roots and that's what you eat," he said.

His wife, Laurel, has roasted them and they are also suitable ingredients for soups and stir fries.

"They have a very nutty taste, they are quite nice. I think after eating 3 or 4 meals of them though you'd probably be looking for something else to eat," he said.

Shoppers seem to like them too, he almost sold out when he took them to the earth market.

"They seem to like being grown with mulch. On one side of them I had grass clippings about 10cm thick and I noticed the roots have formed better on that side," he said.