Cardoons

[cevenol jardin]

oldherbaceous mentioned in the what are you growing new thread that he and Alan had abandonned cardoons - what can you do with them -
I grew them for the first time this year (not knowing anything about them)with starts from my French neighbours and instructions on how to cook them.
In autumn wrap the stalks in newspaper and tie with string to blanche. Then harvest the stalks peel with a veg peeler to get rid of the spiky hard outer. Then
1. boil season and serve with melted butter or olive oil.
2. bake in a gratin of white sauce and a sprinkling of cheese.
3. use as a vegetable in a meat tagine

I still have 3 healthy plants going strong - does anyone know how long i should expect them to last? Are they perennial?

[oldherbaceous]

Dear C.J, I wish we had had that recipe when i had grown them, it sounds quite pleasing.
I wrapped a couple of the stems with cardboard which did a good job with the blanching, but we couldn't think of anything else to do with all the others apart from putting some in soups and stews.
So they made some fine compost.

I think years ago they used to make hay or straw bands, to blanche them with, and very nice i should think they looked as well.

I don't know how many years they would live by the way.

[Tigger]

I grow them in my garden as ornamentals - we don't eat them. They are perennials, but if you want to increase your stock (or have more young ones which make better eating) you can take the shoots off near the base of the plant in spring and establish theose as new plants.

[Granny]

I've got what I thought were artichokes (given by a friend of a friend) but my sister thinks they are cardoons. They look the same but are smaller. Because we thought they were artichokes we ate the leaves and hearts with vinaigrette as we would with artichokes. They taste lovely.
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Granny

[cevenol jardin]

Thanks for that.
I will move them now to a permanant spot and have a go with one of my neighbours recipes when i cut them back to give them a head start - will let you know if they taste any good. I haven't blanched them so we'll see.