GOOD DAY SUNCHOKES

(Music: GOOD DAY SUNSHINE, Lennon-McCartney) (info./disclaimers [0]) (glossary [0]) (index [0]) (gardening guide [0])

Good day sunchokes, good day sunchokes, good day sunchokes

I like to learn where crops are native to
North America has just a few
Sunflowers and berries, cran- and blue-
And excluding wild vegetables, one's gotta do

Good day sunchokes, good day sunchokes, good day sunchokes

Tomatoes, beans, corn, spuds and squash
All came up from further south ...

Good day sunchokes, good day sunchokes, good day sunchokes

Most of our diet comes from afar
Europe, Asia, Africa
Central and South America
We still don't know just where we are

Good day sunchokes, good day sunchokes, good day sunchokes
Good day sunchokes (repeat and fade)

Comments: Spuds are potatoes. Ninety percent of the earth's vegetable life forms reputedly evolved in a narrow belt of land close to the equator, in regions that are now known as Vavilov Centers. The Beetless' tribute to sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes, "dieter's potatoes," and other inaccurate names) reflects upon this situation, which, despite the cheery melody, bears two more somber undersides. First, as the Beetless point out, we have a diminished sense of place because most of our crop varieties have been imported, and we are ignorant of native foodstuffs. Second, perhaps more ominously, something our four lads (fresh from the controversy surrounding MIGUEL) apparently deemed too "heavy" for this song: urban settlement, deforestation, and importation of hybrid seed varieties are rapidly wiping out ancient natural varieties and entire ecosystems within these Vavilov Centers. We may indeed be singing GOOD DAY SUNCHOKES before too long, if the seedstocks that form the genetic reservoirs for our cultivated varieties continue to disappear at their present rate. If biodiversity's gone and a blight hits, sunchokes may be all that we're eating. Luckily, they're quite good.