Artichokes in the North

I like to use the analogy of cooks vs. bakers when providing advice on annual artichoke culture. The fact is that artichoke culture isn’t exactly easy, at least in the north where few, if any of us have been able to grow artichokes as they can in California, but things have changed given new methods and new varieties. It’s going to take some time to catch on, but expect your local farmer’s markets and farm stands to start featuring artichokes as more and more local growers are discovering the potential given new methods.

The best part here is home gardeners don’t need to wait, you can start right now as artichoke seed must be started early (January or February) and grown on under light, but never in a cold environment so skip winter-germination or anything like that as exposure to cold temperatures while young is the trick (or hack?) you will use in April to get your young plants to bloom in the first year. More on that later.

HISTORY The Globe Artichoke (not to be confused with the Jerusalem Artichoke, which is a tuberous relative of the sunflower) are large, attractive thistle-like plants with sharp spines and silvery leaves. Botanically they are closely related to the ornamental and edible plant Cardoon). Old, biblical plants, humans have been eating the stems, leaf stalks and the immature large flower buds since biblical times. Yet while scholars cannot agree on the exact origin of the plant, most believe that it likely was introduced by the Arabs into Europe.

The globe artichoke came to the United States earlier than you might think. In the 17th century Thomas Jefferson grew it at Monticello, but it wasn’t until  1920  when the veg started to become popular as Italian immigrants introduced better selections of one