Around this time of year, you will begin to notice an abundance of Jerusalem Artichokes, aka sunchokes at farmers' markets and well-stocked grocery stores. They tend to rather pricey - I have seen them run about $5.00 per pound, which seems like a king's ransom when you consider how they are almost too easy to grow.

Contrary to its name, the Jerusalem Artichoke has nothing to do with the city of Jerusalem or with artichokes. The most frequent and common theory espoused to explain this misnomer is that “Jerusalem” is a distortion of the plant's Italian name, girasole. As for why it is called an artichoke, it is theorized that in the 1600s, the intrepid explorer, Samuel de Champlain, described the flavor of this root vegetable to similar to that of an artichoke while introducing it to Europe.
The other name, sunchoke, given to this root vegetable, is more appropriate and descriptive, as sunchokes are classified as being part of the sunflower family. For lazy gardeners out there like me, you will also be thrilled to learn that sunchokes are a North American perennial that are easy to care for, are hardy and pest-free in Solano County as far I can tell, and incredibly productive (I estimate the 3-5 lbs of sunchokes I bought from the supermarket and Peaceful Valley Garden Supply and planted last year,yielded probably close to 30-50 lbs of sunchokes in my first year. I could not give these away after awhile—sort of like how people run from the zucchini gardener during the summer months).
In the bay area, sunchokes are ideally planted in March and April, much in the same way that potatoes are. Dig holes sufficiently large to drop a piece or a whole sunchoke root in the ground. Ideally, I would space mine 8" to 1' apart, but they seem to thrive in tighter spaces Mound up with soil about 2-3 inches and water regularly but not so much that the root begins to rot.
Sunchokes can grow up to be 15' tall, topped with some yellow flowers that resemble small sunflowers. If you are into permaculture and cultivating food forests, the stems of the sunchoke can be cut down when they are sufficiently tall (e.g., 6-8') and used as a mulch. It will not harm the plant nor affect your food supply, as the sunchoke will regenerate new stems and leaves very quickly. The sunchokes are ready to harvest in a few months as the flowers, stems, leave die back (and maybe even before then), around October if planted in the spring.
One very important thing to note is that sunchokes can be invasive. A small piece broken off will re-generate a new plant and if the plant is allowed to roam freely, it may become very hard to get rid of. I grow my sunchokes in black grow bags and treat them much the way I treat mint, which is equally invasive.
As with most root vegetables, sunchokes tend to keep longer than other vegetables. After they have been harvested, place unwashed sunchokes into a plastic bag which then goes into the crisper in your refrigerator. They can keep 1-3 weeks and as long as 5 weeks, under the right conditions.

Recipe for sunchokes can easily be found on-line.