March 14, 2017 – Cardoon research, Cynara cardunculus

        It is a cold, dreary, and rainy day here today.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we got some black ice tonight if the temperature drops.

        A few years back I was up in Asheville, North Carolina, at the Farmer’s Market for the herb festival.  It is a yearly thing so if you are close to Asheville, check it out.  It is a WOW.  It is certainly a wonderful festival to take in as long as you have comfy shoes, serious money in your pocket, and someone with you who knows nothing about gardening so you can look really “smart”. [I am kidding.]

I took a gardener friend and a non-gardener friend with me that day and all three of us wanted to buy everything we saw.  We noticed many clever patrons brought their own little red wagons to get their purchases back to their car.

        The gardener friend and I knew exactly what we were looking at and often reached for the same plant to inspect.  The non-gardener asked a lot of questions and became so disappointed when everything she wanted was a sun loving specimen and all she has is shade.

        That year was the first time I saw Cardoon transplants for sale.  I never really paid them much attention in the gardening magazines all these years. But way back in the 1980s I was unsuccessful raising them from seed and hoped I would see transplants one day.  They have been on my “wish” list for years.  No, I didn’t buy one that day because I was after “Provence” Lavender and on a tight budget.

        But, last year, Horne’s Home and Garden had a few transplants come in with some other transplants in the spring and I snapped one up to see if I could actually keep it alive.   I planted it in full sun in the vegetable garden and gave it a 24 inch wide birth from everything else and it survived but didn’t seem big enough to “blanch” and harvest last fall.

        Last year I did not have ample time to research it to see if I had to wait to harvest until on the second year. [Somehow I got it in my mind that it was a biennial which I haven't yet confirmed.]

        Since I am in roughly zone 7 which is mild and much like the Mediterranean from whence it comes, my one Cardoon never really died back much and over the fall and winter it has grown and divided at the base with additional plants or offsets.  Lucky me for not harvesting it – I will have more than one plant to experiment with.

        Today was a perfect day to sit and research on the internet and I got lots of general information, but I want a treatise like a Cardoon growing farm refers to.  I am looking for one of those Agricultural Bulletins that is 20 to 40 pages long and very detailed.  I simple haven’t been able to snag one.

Half of what I find on the internet treats the Cardoon as if it is a perennial border plant for its showy leaves – which are very lovely I must say.  But, I have mine planted in the vegetable garden and I actually intend on eating it – if I can get it to the point where the stems are long enough for me to wrap with burlap so that I can blanch it – then I can start searching for recipes.

I found lots of information about Cynara cardunculus becoming a serious crop in Greece as a promising source for solid biofuel production as well as its invasive habit. [OH, not another one!]

So, this will be a surprise plant until I find out more!