American Groundnut - 5lb

Here’s Henry Thoreau speaking fondly of the groundnut:

“Digging one day for fishworms, I discovered the groundnut (Apios tuberosa) on its string, the potato of the aborigines, a sort of fabulous fruit, which had often since seen its crumpled red velvety blossom supported by the stems of other plants without knowing it to be the same. Cultivation has well nigh exterminated it. It has a sweetish taste, much like that of a frostbitten potato, and I found it better boiled than roasted. The tuber seemed like a faint promise of Nature to rear her own children and feed them simply here at some future period. In these days of fatted cattle and waving grain - fields, this humble root, which was once the totem of an Indian tribe, is quite forgotten...” Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Apios Americana, or American Groundnut, is an indigenous foodway of eastern North America. The sprawling perennial vine produces a chain of potato-like tubers below ground that are harvested after a killing frost. They are denser than potatoes and have 3 times the protein which makes them more versatile, yet because of their starch content they can do anything a potato can. They are round in shape which makes them far easier to work with than sunchokes or ginger with all those crevices.

Now we’ve made tremendous progress on increasing the tuber size to make them easier and quicker to work with in the kitchen. The tubers have reached 2-4 times the size they were in 2025, on average the size of a golf ball. Although sizes do vary - some a good bit larger and others just a tad smaller. 

They are fantastic fried as chips, mashed like potatoes, shredded like hash browns, added to soups, and oven roasted. But my favorite way is Groundnut Hummus. Better than chickpeas!

They are traditionally a wild foraged crop with sporadic availability if at all. But I’ve been developing an agricultural method to cultivate, select for productivity, ease of harvest, and scalability for the past 10 years to give this wonderful native food a chance in the spotlight for local chefs. Each year we have a modest crop that sells very quickly. I have a long way to go with this crop, but it’s a plant that I believe is truly worth it.