Jerusalem Artichoke

[fishinchicks]

I know it is the end of summer when the artichokes are in full bloom. My mother-in-law planted these during the "Jerusalem Atrichoke Scam" era in the late '70s or early '80s.

[MN Shutterbug]

Sweeeet! Very nice shot. I remember that scam. I believe my wife had an uncle that fell for that.

[Steve Foss]

Nice image! What scam was that?

[Dbl]

Thats a beautiful shot! I'm with Steve I don't recall the scam. We must be too young Steve

[fishinchicks]

It was a pyramid type scam to get people to grow Jerusalem artichokes. They were promised a market to sell them, but that turned out to be a lie. The scammers went to prison for it. There were a lot of people taken in by that scam around the Marshall/Minneota area. There is a book written about it by Joseph Amato.

[mmeyer]

Great image Fishinchicks!

[finnbay]

Great lighting and use of color!

[Steve Foss]

Cool. I like being too young to remember something!

[fishinchicks]

Did a google search and came up with 1981 as the year this happened. The guys were preying on the farmers who just came through the energy crisis, and were heading strongly into the farm crisis.

I was 13 at the time.

Married and moved to the SW corner of the state 7 years later, and they were still talking about it.

[MN Shutterbug]

C'mon Steve, you're not that young. Not living in the farm belt probably makes a difference.

[Steve Foss]

I was born and grew up in the farm belt (Wis. dairy farm and N.D. Red River Valley cropland), and graduated high school in 1980, the year before this apparently happened. Guess my first year at college was oriented toward things less newsworthy but more, ah, funworthy.

[MN Shutterbug]

Gee Steve, and I thought you were raised by wolves.

[Steve Foss]

Ahhhh, yes and no.

[DeeDee]

Gee Steve, and I thought you were raised by wolves.

That would not surprise me, with all the great wildlife photo's