Yes...if it gets much taller, it toughens up. You also need to do some research on how to cook it to make it safe to eat as raw bamboo shoots contain cyanide compounds.

Unless you have horrid neighbors like we do, then I suggest making them raw bamboo salad, lol!

Believe it or not, harvesting Bamboo shoot for food will require some skills. Once the Bamboo Shoots tip grow above the ground, it will taste bitter. Skill is to locating the dirt mount where shoot is just about to sprout. Once you locate the spot dig out the dirt very carefully dig about ten to twelve inches deep.
Good luck.

Would you recomend mulching the area where they are going to sprout. That way they would still be under something and not exposed to daylight.

Mulching should not hurt, I was stationed in Japan quite a few years ago and had opportunity to accompany the Takenoko growers for winter harvesting. Ground was covered with fallen leaves. I was able to find only one shoot but I wasn't looking hard either. What variety are you growing?

I am growing vegetable bamboo as sold by One Green World.

l_james-
It's not clear what you are saying. What specific type of bamboo are you growing? The term "vegetable bamboo" is not something most of us are familiar with. Do you have actual bamboo, or another type of plant that is called a bamboo?

The company One Green World has 18 different types of bamboo for sale.
The type I'm growing is Sweet Shoot Bamboo - Phyllostachys dulcis. "Very popular in China where it is called Vegetable Bamboo"
It says that it's hardy to 0 deg.F., USDA Zone 7 but it is doing well in zone 5b but we've only been down to -5 and only a few times at nite.
The catalog says it grows 20-25 ft. in height. Mine only grows about 8 ft. but it's only 3 years old. I was amazed at how far the risomes spread under ground.

l_james-
Thanks. I've never heard of Ph. dulcis being called vegetable bamboo, but it makes sense because it provides some of the best tasting shoots. I've been growing it in Zone 8b, and it doesn't lose any leaves in winter. Mine is about 15' tall with culms that are about 1.5" in diameter. I haven't tried eating any of the shoots because I'm still trying to maximize the size of my grove. Good luck with yours...winter could be tough on it where you are.

I realise now that being hardy means the tops don't die in the winter.
On mine the tops all die but new shoots sprout in the spring. Thus it will probly never get real tall.
I plan to try and harvest some to eat next spring.

My Sweet Shoot Bamboo tops didn't die off this winter. I believe the coldest it got was 10 deg. F.
The patch has spread to 20ft. wide with culms popping up everywhere.
I cut some of the culms and cooked them. Some were 8 inches long from the ground up and one was 16 inches long.
I chopped them crosswise and boiled them. They tasted OK with no gastro distress. So I guess thei're edible.
I think finding them under ground and harvesting them would be difficult and I don't know what you would really have. I'll have to try that next year.
It does look like the patch may get invasive and need some curtailing

The bamboo that One green tree sales is a good varity for eating purpose. Bamboo should be harvested right before its tip break the soil. It is OK to harvest a little later, not too later though. When the shoot turn green, it passed the edible stage, too tough. There is special tool to dog up a bamboo shoot. When you located a bamboo (tip or a little mound), you insert the balde of the tool in angel down the soil to cut the bamboo off its root. For home gardener who only dig few bamboo shoot, you may just locate the shoot and dig down a little bit and break there. Commercial grower need to harvest the shoot as long as possible to maximize the weight so they want the whole thing.
The sweet bamboo should be good with any stir fired pork dish. But you have to remove the cover first. But I will not recommend to eat it raw. You might develop kidney stones if you eat raw.

Even though it can survive but not an idea condition to grow, Bamboo in the north does not grow as big as it grows in the south. My bamboo lost leaves in the winter time, but some of them will regrow from old cane, plus new grow from the shoots. It is invasive, need to put barrier around it , otherwise, it will pop up in your neighbor's yard.
There is also none running type, clump type, not edible, but very decorative .

I eat raw many year. Next time, I try wok pork and shoots.