Artichokes, Artichokes, Everywhere!

It's us versus artichokes and the artichokes are winning. We have multiple bushes full of the delicious vegetable. We've been eating them for weeks and weeks. Usually we eat the whole thing. The leaves are yummy to scrape with your teeth and eat after steaming. Now some of our artichokes are opening and past the point of eating whole. When the artichoke leaves become too mature and stiff to steam and eat, so we harvested for the sake of eating their delicious hearts. You can also do this with purchased artichokes that have sat too long in the fridge.

The chickens love the big leaves.
You can tear off an
entire stalk and put it in the coop.

Harvest by cutting the stem just below the leaves.

Wash thoroughly to remove bugs and dirt.

See how these one's have opened up?
They are perfect to steam for use of hearts.

Before steaming, peel off all leaves.
Scoop out the purple and light green soft leaves (see in picture).
Steam only what's left.

We served the artichoke hearts (see them between the halved sweet potatoes and turnips) with baked sweet potatoes, our eldest daughter's garlic and onion potato medley, butter lettuce, celery and carrot salad, and baked turnips. You can also make dips. Some people like to eat with mayonnaise (you can make this, too!). Check out our Recipes tab for info on other dishes.

Tomorrow: What to do with the leftovers from this dinner?