Artichokes, Artichokes, Artichokes!

My first love was not a boy, it was an artichoke. Something about the meaty vegetable goodness on each leaf, and the strong flavor of the heart just made my own heart melt. Thanks to my Mom who didn't force us to eat our veggies, but graciously insisted on the "two bite test." Which I am positive led to three, four, and ten bites of everything she ever cooked for us, and why as an adult I view veggies as an important part of every meal.
One of our first things my husband and I planted when we had a home to call our own was indeed a handful of artichoke seeds.
From the guidance of a friend, artichoke plants grow best when started from seed, we found two different varieties online (Green Globe and Purple Romagna) and seeds are a lot cheaper to buy than plants anyway. My favorite seed supplier is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, super cheap, and Heirloom veggies just seem to taste better. Not that I'm against finding a sale at a local big box store on seeds, I'm not biased to what I'll plant, my only requirement is that WE plant it.



It took about two years for our Artichoke plants to reach full producing potential. Last year we got a handful of baby artichokes off, but this year we're at about 40 harvested artichokes from three plants, and they're still going!


All we do is pick them, use kitchen scissors to snip the top pokey parts off the leaves, and use a knife to make the top a flat even surface, then plop them in the steamer, or in a pot of boiling water, and they take about 30 to 45 minutes to cook to tender.



Now, maybe my Country-ness is going to really show now, but my favorite dip for artichokes is equal parts of ranch dressing and mayonnaise... AND there goes the "healthy" right out the window! :) My husband is the traditional garlic butter dipper, but my daughter just likes to eat them plain as is, the healthiest way of all for sure.

Now most things I've read about growing artichokes people trim their plants down after they're done producing. My husband only prunes the bottom dead leaves off and lets them grow. They stay green all winter and when the rest of the trees have lost their leaves my artichoke plants stand tall and beautiful. Who needs hedges anyway? This year we have added another two dozen artichoke plants around our property, they're only about a foot tall now, but by this time next year, I'll be in a forest of artichokes and one happy lady.