{"id":1463,"date":"2014-11-05T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T10:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bostonzest.com\/?p=1463"},"modified":"2014-11-05T10:10:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T10:10:00","slug":"more-on-those-local-artichokes-from-stillmans-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bostonzest.com\/?p=1463","title":{"rendered":"More on Those Local Artichokes from Stillman’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As I began to prepare the artichokes we told you about last week<\/a>, I asked Ed if he wanted to see what they looked like inside. He came to the kitchen with his camera. <\/p>\n

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I’m glad he did, because now I can show you what these little beauties looked like when I cut off the top to expose the leaf structure. I have never worked with artichokes with such tight buds.<\/p>\n

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I found myself wanting to remove as little as possible to preserve as much of each artichoke as I could. My favorite tool for trimming the leaves are my Shun kitchen shears<\/a>\"\". (More about those in an upcoming post. For now, let me say this would be a great holiday gift for any cook who is struggling with less well-made kitchen shears.)<\/p>\n

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Since we wanted to really taste the fullest possible flavor of these artichokes, I decided to cut them in half and steam them. <\/p>\n

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I also removed the tiny chokes to make less work at the table. (When I can, I like to leave the messy jobs in the kitchen.)<\/p>\n

Here’s a post from “Our Best Bites” showing how to remove the choke.<\/a> This also shows the difference in store bought and local-from-the-farm artichokes. I’ve worked with many artichokes over the years that look just like those in that post.<\/p>\n

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Off to the cooktop in the steamer basket of my favorite, little, useful cooking pot.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Sorry, we didn’t take photos of the finished product. We tucked right in and soon the Stillman’s artichokes were just a pile of scraped leaves left behind by two diners with smiles on their faces.<\/p>\n

Halley who staffs the Stillman’s stand at the Copley Farmers’ Market answered a question one of our readers asked in the last post.<\/p>\n

Q:”…How are these being harvested in October? Is it because of our seasonally warm fall? Artichokes are a spring vegetable for sure.”<\/p>\n

A: “So here’s the scoop on artichokes. Traditionally they are not a crop grown in New England because they produce during their second year and cannot survive our winters. It is possible to get production here but it takes A LOT of work. You have to start the seeds as transplants in the greenhouse very early in February,  then you set up a “cold treatment” that tricks the seedlings into thinking that they have gone through a winter.  After that they are transplanted into the field where they finally produce fruit at the end of the summer. <\/em><\/p>\n

If your reader is looking for more information,  they can reference the artichoke section from Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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