How to grow artichokes

Listen to this radio story (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Richard Smith, vegetable crop farm advisor, University of California Vegetable Research & Information Center

I love steamed fresh artichokes with lemon and butter and salt. Even my kids will eat them. It's fun to pull off the leaves, grip them with your teeth and eat the "meat." And at the end, you get the reward of the juicy artichoke heart. Yummy!

It's a fascinating plant because even though it's part of the sunflower family, it's also a thistle. You do have to cut the thorns off the end of the leaves on some varieties before you steam them.

An artichoke is not a typical garden veggie. University of California Vegetable Crop Advisor Richard Smith says artichokes are fussy about their living conditions.

"The perennial varieties are basically grown in California in a very narrow band, right along the coast up against the Monterrey Bay," Smith says. "And the reason the climate here is favorable is because they need the cool climate conditions in order to produce basically year round."

The artichoke does best in frost-free areas with cool, foggy summers. If it's too hot they shut down, and if it freezes, the buds are killed.