Hyperburgers
Inconvenience Store
Leo's Sunroots
Het Kloosterbos is a place mistakenly known as the permaculture garden of Eindhoven. Leo, its coordinator, usually tends to deflect from simplicistic definitions and rather describes it as a pleisterplaats, a place for healing and regeneration for microbes, plants and humans. To my knowledge Leo moved on from permaculture and rather associates Kloosterbos to rewilding.
One day Leo showed me the tall sunflowers near the shed, 3 to 4 meters high. Then he showed me a pit nearby, full of what were back then known to me as topinambour. To my complete surprise I learnt that day that they were the roots of the tall sunflowers. I knew topinambour raw in salad from my family home. I once had it at Soho house for lunch, one baked specimen, cut in 2 on a plate, for 7 euro. I always assumed topinambour was an unusual Piemontese word, because of the “our” word ending that reminded me of French, a language geographically and phonetically near my regional dialect. That day chatting with Leo –one of the many good things to do at Klosterboos– I found out the name topinambour is in fact a paradoxical case of colonial ignorance and offence. The plant was originally obtained by French colonialist Samuel de Champlain on his trips between 1603 and 1611 to the lands of the First Nation People Huron and Algonquin, in North America and Canada (or was it the Neuset People from today's Cape Cod, Massachussets? I couldn’t figure this out). But the word topinambour is a simplification and a frenchism of Tououpinambaoults, an indigenous Brazilian People, of which many members were abducted and brought to Paris as a curiosity in 1613. In the same period the root was also introduced in France. So basically the names have been conflated simply because the root from North America and the Indigenous Brazilian People were offered to the French society in the same period.
The root is also known as Jerusalem artichoke which many seem to agree is an onomatopeic derivative from the Italian “girasole,” sunflower. Though, I think it might also be related to the story of a 18th century chef called Louis-Eustache Ude who used sunroots for a Palestinian soup that became a staple in many French homes.
Hyperburgers
Inconvenience Store
Leo's Sunroots
Het Kloosterbos is a place mistakenly known as the permaculture garden of Eindhoven. Leo, its coordinator, usually tends to deflect from simplicistic definitions and rather describes it as a pleisterplaats, a place for healing and regeneration for microbes, plants and humans. To my knowledge Leo moved on from permaculture and rather associates Kloosterbos to rewilding.
One day Leo showed me the tall sunflowers near the shed, 3 to 4 meters high. Then he showed me a pit nearby, full of what were back then known to me as topinambour. To my complete surprise I learnt that day that they were the roots of the tall sunflowers. I knew topinambour raw in salad from my family home. I once had it at Soho house for lunch, one baked specimen, cut in 2 on a plate, for 7 euro. I always assumed topinambour was an unusual Piemontese word, because of the “our” word ending that reminded me of French, a language geographically and phonetically near my regional dialect. That day chatting with Leo –one of the many good things to do at Klosterboos– I found out the name topinambour is in fact a paradoxical case of colonial ignorance and offence. The plant was originally obtained by French colonialist Samuel de Champlain on his trips between 1603 and 1611 to the lands of the First Nation People Huron and Algonquin, in North America and Canada (or was it the Neuset People from today's Cape Cod, Massachussets? I couldn’t figure this out). But the word topinambour is a simplification and a frenchism of Tououpinambaoults, an indigenous Brazilian People, of which many members were abducted and brought to Paris as a curiosity in 1613. In the same period the root was also introduced in France. So basically the names have been conflated simply because the root from North America and the Indigenous Brazilian People were offered to the French society in the same period.
The root is also known as Jerusalem artichoke which many seem to agree is an onomatopeic derivative from the Italian “girasole,” sunflower. Though, I think it might also be related to the story of a 18th century chef called Louis-Eustache Ude who used sunroots for a Palestinian soup that became a staple in many French homes.
Hyperburgers is a social design project started by Francesca Tambussi. It aims to become a free tool for citizens to make their own Consumers Lab. Wanna start one or join me in the making? Send me an email.
Wanna see where the Hyperburgers wind blows? Updates are mostly posted on Instagram. A recap of the year is sent with the Riseup newsletter, and news about the upcoming Berlin project are on Telegram!
Hyperburgers is a social design project started by Francesca Tambussi. It aims to become a free tool for citizens to make their own Consumers Lab. Wanna start one or join me in the making? Send me an email.
Wanna see where the Hyperburgers wind blows? Updates are mostly posted on Instagram. A recap of the year is sent with the Riseup newsletter, and news about the upcoming Berlin project are on Telegram!