I'm glad you were able to springify and grow them. Very nice plate. But (she said in a wee small voice but we can't do small font anymore), Castroville is cold.

Nice artichokes. I'm not sure what Zone 6 means but they seem to be doing fine.

The averages in Castroville for January are high of 60, low of 40. Not particularly cold by coastal California standards. In SoCal, not too inland Pomona's average daily low in January is 42 by comparison. Is Pomona a cold place?

Castroville weather

I had artichokes in my back yard in Venice for a few years, and the plant really grew out of control. It was attractive the first year or two, but after that, it became just too big. I did like having the stems, as that is also my favorite part, but the plants take up way too much space.

Lars, are you sure you didn't have a Cardoon plant? They look like an artichoke, taste like an artichoke, and it is mostly grown for the stems. It also gets huge and sprawling.

I'm impressed! Beautiful dish!

I did try growing artichokes. The plant looks just like an Oriental poppy.

The plant leaves reminded me of the ferns we grow here. We definitely don't grow artichokes which I happen to love. I haven't had one in several years because they're not sold in many places and the flavour isn't all that great from them.

It's one of those great long ago memories. My mom would cook up a couple and I would make the Hollandaise sauce and we would dip away. Mmmm.

Your meal looks great.

For those of you in colder areas you need to start from seed about now. Plant in the ground around mid September. Fertilize well the next year and you might have artichokes to eat. In colder climates they are biennial rather than perennial. A few may live for several years. Some of the newer types will grow from seed to flowering in one season but so far I have had no luck with those.

If you have a movable cold frame you can place that over the plant but keep it open except in extreme weather to provide an early start of growth and protect the plants.

Too humid here for artichokes, darn it. I am definitely jealous of Californians! My sister lives in Santa Monica and last time I was visiting (May) I saw a number of them growing in front yards - and on hillsides and roadsides as well - escaped volunteers, I believe?

I'd love to do artichokes here. One of my favorite veggies. I will have to see. I have seen small ones at farmer's markets. I could deal with that!

I've had them a couple of times. I don't know if they failed due to a hard freeze or gophers (don't remember), but I do remember having problems with earwigs and ants. I don't need the extra protein.

Also, one that I got was the big round type and there was very little "meat" on them.

We've never grown them, but having lived really close to Castroville for 35 years, we certainly like them. I've always learned that the round ones are not nearly as good as the more elongated ones, which are far meatier. And when they get a little frost-tipped, they are all the sweeter.

Thank you all for your very nice comments.

Yes, Castroville is the "Artichoke Center of the World", they even had Marilyn Monroe as the Queen of Artichoke.

Jacques Pepin has nice youtube video on cooking artichoke:

dcarch

how do you grow them? They are my favorites but too expensive during the past few years.

I have grown artichokes in large planters here in NH. I started them from vernalized seed; the variety was Emerald. I brought the planters into the basement for the winter.

where do you buy the seed?

I got the Emerald Artichoke seed from Ferry Morse. I have tried other varieties and never gotten them to produce. Emerald is the only variety I have had success with. Emerald is a hybrid.

Artichokes are among my top ten, maybe even top five, favorite veggies. I have actually bought them at a northern Connecticut farmer's market - they were small, but good.

Definitely I'd love to grow them here in MA!! Moosemac, I'll look for the Emerald...