Cardoons, Spanish Artichoke, Safflower Cabbage

Cardy, cardoons, cardone, Spanish artichoke, Spanish thistle, thistle cabbage, all these names for – presumably – the stem form of the artichoke! While from the artichoke the closed flower heads are eaten, it is from the cardoon the thick-fleshed, bleached leaf stalks. Typical winter stem vegetable, with long, fleshy, silvery-white to light green, strongly spiny ribbed leaves of a perennial up to 1.5 m high. The innermost leaves, the heart, are the most tender.

Both artichoke and cardoon, from the composite family, originate from the Mediterranean region. Cardoons, a very decorative thistle-like plant, are also found in various paintings by Dutch masters: probably brought to Belgium as seeds in the 16th century.

Cardoons are wrapped in the cellar after harvesting, protected from light, to make them exceptionally tender (this can also be done directly in the field: the plants are bound with corrugated cardboard or possibly black foil): the plants are dug up together with the soil balls, placed in a dark room and thus also protected from frost.

Cardoons are easily digestible and therefore also suitable as a diet vegetable.

Growing areas: Southern France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland (only in the canton of Geneva).

Harvest time: in late autumn, before the first frost is harvested, later continuously bleached.

Storage: once bleached cardoons should be used within a week.

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