Globe Artichokes

Globe artichokes are considered a luxury in some circles, but their exquisite taste and fascinating growth make them an essential part of Dirty Nails’ veg plot. This edible thistle is generally easy to grow, and if space is tight they will be quite happy at the back of the flower border too.

Dirty Nails has been in the greenhouse this week sowing seeds of the Green Globe variety. Bluish-grey and the size of a sunflower seed, they are simply nestled into potting compost ½ inch (1½ cm) down. Around midsummer the young plants should be ready for planting out. In subsequent years, when big bud production is in full swing, globe artichokes will make a bushy clump of coarse, silvery-green leaves which like space, moisture and sunshine, so give them plenty of room to grow. Three feet (1 metre) may seem excessive when less than a year old, but your rewards will come.

In the year after sowing, Dirty Nails harvests only the main, or ‘king’, bud. He pinches the smaller buds out before they come to anything. In subsequent years each plant may produce over half a dozen buds the size of a fist. These are cut, with a portion of stem attached, from June to October before the globes begin to open. Boiled until tender, there is a mouthful of artichoke flesh to be scraped from the bottom of each bud ‘leaf’, and a gorgeous ‘heart’ within to be savoured. The hairy ‘choke’, however, must be avoided.

Dirty Nails ensures a succession of plants that are at their peak by sowing a few seeds each year, and by knifing-away side growths with some root attached from strong plants in their three or four year-old prime. These suckers, taken in autumn or spring, are replanted and treated as one year-olds.

Natural History In The Garden: Brimstone Butterfly

A warm spell this month will tempt the first butterflies out of hibernation. Keep an eye out for the brimstone, which over-winters in its adult form under loose bark, in thick ivy, or other frost-free hidey-holes. Its lovely plain yellow colouration, slightly paler on females, is what puts the ‘butter’ into butterfly.

Vegetable Snippets: A Brief History Of Globe Artichoke

It is thought that globe artichokes originated in the Mediterranean. There is evidence that this plant was being cultivated for food in Italy and Sicily from about 300 BC. The Greeks and Romans are credited with exporting globes further afield. The fact that Cynara scolymus, as it is known scientifically, does best when afforded a sizeable plot to grow in and produces a relatively small return for this space, meant that at this time it was homed mainly in the aristocratic gardens of Europe. Here globe artichokes achieved gourmet status and were highly prized on account of their reputed aphrodisiac and breath-freshening qualities. Globes were introduced to Britain in the sixteenth century.

Considered by many to be a luxury vegetable, these artichokes are nutritionally rich in vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and dietary fibre. Green Globe is one of the most popular of many varieties available today and hails from America.