stuffed artichoke from eat-spin-run-repeat.com
The appetizer for the first dinner I ate in New York City was an artichoke baked with Parmesan, crumbs, and olive oil. It was the first time I remember eating an artichoke (although I must surely have eaten some anonymous slimy dip in the 80s). It was delicious! Artichokes are still one of my favorite foods and they still remind me of how exciting it was to be in New York for the first time. But personal recollections aside, what is an artichoke? The answer is as amazing and unexpected as the vegetable itself.
A field of artichokes
The first time I tried to cook an artichoke, I bought a couple of likely specimens and included them with my grocery purchase: the poor teenage grocery clerk grabbed them from the conveyor belt like they were tomatoes and then screamed. It turns out that artichokes are a sort of thistle: they have sharpened spikes on the edges of their leaves (I’m really sorry the clerk hurt her hands: I would have warned her if I had only known she was unfamiliar with artichokes). Domestic artichokes (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus) are a variety of cardoons–wild thistle flowers which are native to Italy, Spain, and North Africa. Cardoons are part of the aster family (along with daisies, scottish thistles, and sunflowers) and were eaten by humans in prehistory. It is unclear whether the Greeks and Romans domesticated the spiky plants (although they certainly knew of cardoons), however by the middle ages Muslim farmers were breeding the vegetables to be bigger and tastier.
The Wild Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus)
Cardoons are hardy perennial flowers which grow up to 1.5 meters (60 inches) in height and produce purple flowers from a large spiky capitulum. The capitulum is the portion of the artichoke which we eat. If it is allowed to sprout into a flower, it becomes dry, leathery, and inedible unless you are a ruminant (in which case, why are you reading this?). The world’s farmers currently grow about 1.4 million tons of artichokes a year–the vast majority of which still come from Italy. There is even a delicious artichoke bitter liquor made of artichokes!
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August 29, 2013 at 4:42 PM
Yvonne Beale
I have recently become rather obsessed with growing Cynara cardunculus cardoon, the cardoon, and also Cynara cardunculus, artichoke. You might be interested to know that the cardoon used to be a very popular vegetable in Victorian times but fell out of use as the leaves have to be blanched prior to eating by wrapping the plant in cardboard for some time prior to harvesting. The artichokes really aren’t difficult to grow although it takes a bit of self-control to chop off the king crown early if one develops in the first year when they should be putting strength into growth. The cardoon is still very popular in Italy and there they grow it in rows in a field then knock it over and cover up partially with earth to blanch, it is called cardo there. Here is a link to a photo of the crop there. Being thistles the first year is slow going and it is in the second year that things begin to happen. I enjoyed your post and I think my husband will enjoy the recipe suggestion as he is a big fan of artichokes.
August 29, 2013 at 4:43 PM
Yvonne Beale
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=gobbo+di+nizza&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=gbEfUsHlMYqrhAfEkIBo&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1092&bih=484#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=BEnbtEPcuh8nPM%3A%3BmpK-nEUAGNF43M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.civiltadelbere.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F01%252FImmagine-217.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.civiltadelbere.com%252Fil-cardo-gobbo-signore-dell%2525E2%252580%252599inverno%252F%3B592%3B434
August 29, 2013 at 9:47 PM
Moike
Aye man, good with the frankfurters and hamburgers.
July 15, 2019 at 8:32 PM
Rosie
I’ve been trying to identify my triffid and it seems to be this! But mine is about 7 feet tall. I can’t remember actually planting it. I am quite fond of it and will try to find out how to treat it well.