Artichokes - a reason not to trust childhood memories.

I was sure my dad grew artichokes as food for the pigs. I seem to remember the pigs coming into the orchard and rooting around in the ground for artichokes. I the city well into my 40's I had seen artichokes in the local Deli and may have even had them on pizza and am sure I'd had them in an antipasto dish.

This is testament to my theory of gardening,  see it - grow it.  So I planted some artichokes and like most things in my vegetable garden now they grow like there is no tomorrow, I was so proud on the things, big strong and reaching for the sky. The grew these magnificent purple flowers that opened and looked like a big purple moon. Thinking back the the pigs on the farm as a kid I thought like a potato that maybe when they went to flower that was the time to dig them up and find the artichokes.

So off to consult Mr Google I went with my beautiful flowering artichokes - bugger. I'm actually not looking for something under the ground that pigs could find I'm looking for the flower buds before they open. Oh well I lost a few flowers and learned another lesson on gardening - Artichokes grow in the air not under the ground.

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