Saturday, January 10, 2009

Artichokes

This morning I harvested our first artichokes. One is a good size - approx 16cm diameter, and the other 2 are about 13 cm diameter. We've only ever eaten them once, a few years ago in England, we spotted them at a farmer's market and took them on a visit to my parents. Mum cooked the artichokes and Dad made the hollandaise sauce. They were a delicious treat.
I've never cooked artichokes or made hollandaise sauce before so it will be a bit of a challenge. Will post the results later.

4 comments:

Cottage Smallholder said...

Artichokes are a delicious starter for a meal. If you are feeling lazy a little melted butter and salt are a great dipping sauce.

Yours are whoppers compared to the ones that we grow in the UK!

Cabbage Tree Farm said...

Thanks for the tip re. using just butter and salt. Yes I was surprised at how big they were. The plant has several smaller buds remaining, will have to keep a close eye to see if they get any bigger. I lost one biggish one a few days ago as I wasn't vigilant enough to see it opening up!
Hope you are managing to keep warm over there.
cheers Bridget

Joanna said...

Those look WONDERFUL. Smaller ones are just as good, if you can manage to grow anything weedy-looking, which seems unlikely on this evidence ;) ... you quarter/halve and braise them in wine vinegar and oil. Here's the link to the full post, in case you decide to eat some of the buds while they're still small (I find that useful for the big green artichokes at the end of the season). But you've really inspired me to make sure that I take some slips from my existing plants once they start to grow - thank you Bridget

http://joannasfood.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-heart-artichokes.html

Joanna

Cabbage Tree Farm said...

Hi Joanna
Thanks for letting me know about braising the smaller ones.
I'd be interested to hear how you take the slips. I got my 2 plants going from seed several months ago but presumably it's a lot quicker to get a new plant going by taking cuttings/suckers.
Bridget