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Globe Artichoke Information
Globe Artichoke
Cynara cardunculus
Varieties
Storage
Origins and culture
Nutritional and medicinal
Growing and season
Cooking instructions
Varieties
Each area tends to have its own selections, suited to local weather and local culinary traditions. Most of the types grown in the UK are similar to the Roscoff types grown along the coast in Northwest Brittany. Green Globe is the most popular gardener’s variety, but there are many different selections of even this one type. The varieties favoured by the Spanish and Italians tend to be smaller, often have a reddish tinge and are more pointed in shape. They crop earlier and could be susceptible to frost damage in the UK. In Italy each region tends to have its own varieties and recipes to suit. One could spend a lifetime and still have more to learn about artichokes.
Storage
Artichokes have a good shelf life. Put them in your fridge if there is room but they should keep for a week on a cool vegetable rack. Some blackening of the outer leaves can mean they were caught by a frost at the beginning and end of the season and does not necessarily mean they are old. Artichokes should never appear dried out.
Origins and Culture
No wild relative is known, but the Globe artichoke is clearly closely related to the Cardoon, and probably shared a common ancestor from the eastern Mediterranean. Cardoons are grown for their leaves, which are normally blanched prior to harvest. They are an essential part of the walled garden of any stately home and always look fantastic, particularly when they flower. To this day I have never met anyone who has cooked them.
The Greeks and Romans imported globe artichokes from North Africa and they spread through the aristocratic gardens of Europe. Henry the VIII reckoned they made him horny and his head gardener was charged with maintaining a supply throughout the summer. There is barely a vegetable that someone somewhere has not ascribed this virtue to, and despite conspicuous consumption I have not noticed any such effect: perhaps because I don’t have the luxury of choosing between 6 wives.
Nutritional and Medicinal Properties
Globe artichokes are said to be good for your liver. A Russian woman on a farm tour once said that I should eat them as an antidote to my evident anger (which apparently goes to your liver): clearly a case of intuitive self-medication.
Artichokes were thought to be an aphrodisiac, a diuretic, a breath freshener and even a deodorant. Decoctions of artichoke leaves have been used as blood cleansers, cholerics, to improve bile production and secretion and to detox the liver and the skin.
How it is grown and when it is in season
It is possible to grow artichokes from seed but they are open pollinated and there will be huge variation between the best and the worst. In subsequent years, it is possible to select the best strains from your patch and multiply by division, but this is a lifetime’s labour and the French and Italians have a head start of several generations.
After following this route for a few years, I started casting my eyes across the channel for some top quality plants from Brittany. After hours on the phone trying to get all the right permits from both sides of bureaucracy I gave up. My father and I crossed the channel in his 26 foot sailing boat, snuck up the Roscoff river, met some farmers in a cloud of Gauloises smoke in a shady bar - and the deal was done. Despite loving care it seemed to take two or three years for them to adjust to crossing the channel. Since then they have gone from strength to strength. Each spring we take suckers from the mature plants and plant them out in a new field - so that the original 400 are now 30,000.
The main season is over by late July but the new plants, grown from suckers taken in April, produce their heads in September and October. After harvest is completed we cut down the senescing remains of the plant and sow a green manure of either rye, or if early enough, the nitrogen-fixing vetch between the rows. The green manure is chopped in February, and together with a liberal application of mulch, will feed the next year’s crop.
Artichokes have few pests and have the virtue of being one plant that I have never known a rabbit to eat. We tend to grow them on odd fields where we cannot control the rabbits. They are fairly hungry for nitrogen in the spring but a green manure and a bit of fairly raw cow muck seems to do the trick. Aphids can be a problem but the plants provide such a good habitat for ladybirds and other predators that they are normally self-regulating. We normally keep a crop for three or four years, then split up the crowns and move on to another field.
Basic Cooking Instructions
The more mature the artichoke, the tougher the leaves and meatier the base plate will be. As a guide, if you cannot cut through the leaves reasonably easily with a sharp knife, they will be tough even when cooked (though not necessarily the flesh attached to them). Once cut, the exposed surfaces will soon brown. This can be avoided by acidulating some water with the juice of half a lemon and dunking your prepared artichokes prior to cooking. If preparing a lot, you may find a tide mark on your bowl to challenge any detergent.
Another tip: Don’t waste any good wine with artichokes, there is something about them that ruins your palate. And one more thing: Don’t lick your fingers after cutting them, they will have that bitter flavour like dandelion juice.
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