A hearty meal

The new globe artichoke plants in the Denbies kitchen garden are looking magnificent and are already producing decent-sized artichokes in this first year. They are perennials and should give us a good crop for three or four years to come with very little bother. The artichoke itself is in fact a flower bud, cut off in its prime. Left unpicked in the kitchen garden, the inedible ‘choke’ becomes a stunning purple flower, a sort of sumptuous giant thistle which is a magnet for bees, making this an attractive crop for us and for wildlife.

I have wanted to grow globe artichokes ever since I lived in Italy, where they were so plentiful and cheap in summer that I bought dozens at a time from the veg stall on the street corner. Early in the season they are small and tender, with no hairy ‘choke’ in the middle, easy to cook up with potatoes and olive oil for a simple stew. The later, larger ones are to be savoured individually in a messy but satisfying ritual, plucking off the leaves one by one, dipping the fleshy base of each one in vinaigrette, working gradually inwards until the tender heart is revealed. A hearty meal indeed.