We are talking today about artichokes, a crop, a perennial crop that I've had a lot

of its success with, and you can grow it if you're in a shorter season as well.

I know it's typically a Mediterranean veggie that does really well in my climate, but

it does work in colder climates.

So let's talk about it.

What's interesting is, basically it is a fissile.

It's in the fissile family, and you're just eating the immature flower before it actually

opens up, and most of us are eating it for that little bit of flesh at the bottom of

the brach and the tender artichoke heart, which of course you can just buy in cans, and

it's absolutely delicious.

They look really cool as a plant, too.

Sort of a green silvery-esque leaf, kind of spiky, very large leaves.

The flower stalks can get up to about five feet tall.

So it's a really good border or an immense plant that you can eat, or as we'll talk about,

you can actually just let it flower, and that also looks quite beautiful.

It's a purple flower.

The pollen looks purple.

It's actually not, but it does look purple, and bees go crazy for it.

So when the bees are actually in the flower, they look like they have purple pollen on

their legs, but of course that's just an illusion.

When they fly away, the pollen is more of that classic pollen color.

So you need to plant them in the right spot.

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