[habitat_gardener]

Do jerusalem artichokes grow there? Here, they grow like weeds and can be harvested in the winter whenever it's convenient. They keep better in the ground. People at the community garden give away bagsful, but I didn't find a way to prepare them that I liked in previous years. This year I cooked them with onions, for a sort of thick potato-onion soup, and loved them. Still, it's an acquired taste.

Fairly carefree crops for me have been garlic, potatoes, winter squash, malabar squash, popcorn, herbs. Shell beans work for me if they mature before the fall rains come and if I can pick mature pods before they get moldy.

I've been reading about different varieties of great-tasting corn for flour, polenta, and parched corn in Carol Deppe's book The Resilient Gardener.

Added -- I just noticed it's the market gardening forum! So I guess it'd have to be crops that people in your area are familiar with. Perennial herbs are easy to grow, but for a market you'd have to pick them day-of or day-before. Maybe some flowers? I don't know what grows well there.