"Adam" wrote in message
...
Hi Everyone

Thanks for the welcoming messages when I introduced myself to the group
the other day.

OK, here goes my first question about my new garden: does anyone have any
experience of growing cardoon? It's one of the few plants in my new
allotment that isn't a weed, and is looking particularly healthy right now
with beautiful purple flowers. A Google search for it suggests that I've
probably missed my chance to eat the heads this year, as you have to get
them before they start flowering, but I can maybe eat the stems in a few
weeks time.

Does anyone have any experience with cardoon? Any hints or tips for how to
get the best out of it? Any recipes?

Many thanks
Adam


If it really is a Cardoon and not an Artichoke then you can have a go at
eating the blanched stems as per Kay's article.
However, I assure you that regardless of how they are cooked they are
disgusting. It is not as if you could acquire a taste for them.
I grow both Artichoke and Cardoon, the later can have either red or blue
flowers but I never find the cardoons to be as vigorous or as majestic as
the Artichokes.