Cool Stuff from My Garden

Not as much time to post today as usual, or maybe I'm just feeling lazy. Actually, it's probably just that I feel like all this effort on my blog is a bit wasted since like two people are reading it, and they're only doing it to humor me. Go ahead, prove me wrong.

I planted an artichoke in one of my 1/2 whisky barrels early last fall. It grew like a weed and earlier this spring I harvested several small artichokes. The were a bit bitter, I think because I left them on the plant too long hoping they'd get bigger. I think that's probably the trick with this plant, since there is very little change from early budding to ripeness. Artichokes, like most plants, are mute, so they can't tell me when their sexual organs are ready for me to chop off with a sharp knife and plunge into boiling water... Probably wouldn't share, even if they could, hu?

For those of you who don't know this, when you're eating an artichoke - like broccoli and cauliflower - you're actually eating the flower bud. However, unlike broccoli and cauliflower (which are in the cabbage family) which send of literally hundreds of little tiny blooms off of their buttery tasting stalks, the artichoke (in the thistle family) is one massive bloom. After eating the first few of my harvest and feeling somewhat disappointed, I let my artichokes go to check out what this massive thistle would look like. It's reported to be quite pretty, and makes a charming dried flower according to Martha. This morning I was treated to this:

It's about as big as a medium-sized grapefruit. The other three buds on the plant are getting ready to go, too. Even though it made me late for work (and that never happens, honest), I stopped to capture it's purple glory. Admit it, you're jealous that I have one and you don't. There's just no way you could be as cool as I am.


Because this site is all about the useless information, I did look up a few things for you... The artichoke is relatively low in nutritional value per pound - the average artichoke yields only 25 calories (but that's before the butter or aioli I can't imagine not dipping them in). Though it's quantity of various vitamins per-pound is high, especially vitamin C and potassium, you have to work pretty hard to get at it, and you'd have to eat a number of the prickly buds to hit your average daily allowance. It's also difficult to grow retail-quality artichokes: yields per acre are low and it isn't well adapted to the climate of the United States anywhere except California (where, evidently, everything white people like to eat can be grown). Evidently the folks over there take it pretty seriously, though. They devoted a whole Advisory Board to it.

California Artichoke farm. Just another way that man is modifying the earth to produce tons of exotic fruits far from their native habitat.

A tip for cooking these buggers that I got from Alton Brown... Submerge the bud in salted, boiling water, and place some sort of weight over the top to keep then from bobbing to the surface. Not allowing air access to the green part of the artichoke during cooking keeps them from turning all brown and smelling bad. You can tell it's done when a knife inserted in the base slides in without any effort on your part. Don't worry, after 20 minutes submerged in boiling water, even you would be too dead to complain about a knife in your bum.

The disadvantage of letting my artichokes go to seed is that it is in the pot I wanted to put a tomato in. The tomato is still in a nursery can and is struggling. The season of these two plants overlaps too much, and they should be planned for different parts of the garden - at least out here in the desert.

Click here to see a video of a crazy guy who made an ocarina out of a big broccoli stalk. Crazy stuff out here on the web.