Well, the season has officially begun. On March 5 I seeded this year's onions, leeks, shallots, scallions, artichokes, and parsley. These crops are dear to the heart of market gardeners because they mean . . . another season is coming! It may still be -10 and snowing outside, but on the germination table and under the growlights green things are popping out of the soil.
Onions are one of my favorite crops. The colors, the shapes, the flavors. We're growing 5 different onions, 4 types of leeks, 3 cultivars of shallots, and 3 different scallions, all heritage or OP varieties.
And artichokes- they must be the most intriguing of vegetables. They are, of course, a flower crop, and such a bizarre flower. The next time you bite into a tender choke, think about the fact that you are feasting on the heart of a thorny, hairy, flower bud. And what to say about the horticultural hat tricks required to grow them in our subarctic climate?
In their native Mediterranean basin, artichokes are biannuals- the plant sprouts and establishes itself during its first summer, passes through the cool, dry, Mediterranean winter, then sends up a flower bud (the artichoke) early in its second spring- just in time for Italian cooks to marry them with the first pea harvest in pastas, risottos, and fricasées.
But the tender chokes would never make it through our Québec winters. We crafty northern gardeners must seed the plants nice and early, let them grow to a few inches tall, then put them in the cool, dark basement for a couple of weeks so the poor choke thinks it has passed through a Mediterranean winter. That way it will send up a flower for us by the middle of August, if planted out into the field after the last frosts. Sadly we have to use frozen peas if we want to recreate those Italian dishes. Maybe I'll have to try some new culinary combinations this summer- artichokes and salad turnips perhaps ?
March dreaming . . . while I wait for snowmelt.
-David
Onions are one of my favorite crops. The colors, the shapes, the flavors. We're growing 5 different onions, 4 types of leeks, 3 cultivars of shallots, and 3 different scallions, all heritage or OP varieties.
And artichokes- they must be the most intriguing of vegetables. They are, of course, a flower crop, and such a bizarre flower. The next time you bite into a tender choke, think about the fact that you are feasting on the heart of a thorny, hairy, flower bud. And what to say about the horticultural hat tricks required to grow them in our subarctic climate?
In their native Mediterranean basin, artichokes are biannuals- the plant sprouts and establishes itself during its first summer, passes through the cool, dry, Mediterranean winter, then sends up a flower bud (the artichoke) early in its second spring- just in time for Italian cooks to marry them with the first pea harvest in pastas, risottos, and fricasées.
But the tender chokes would never make it through our Québec winters. We crafty northern gardeners must seed the plants nice and early, let them grow to a few inches tall, then put them in the cool, dark basement for a couple of weeks so the poor choke thinks it has passed through a Mediterranean winter. That way it will send up a flower for us by the middle of August, if planted out into the field after the last frosts. Sadly we have to use frozen peas if we want to recreate those Italian dishes. Maybe I'll have to try some new culinary combinations this summer- artichokes and salad turnips perhaps ?
March dreaming . . . while I wait for snowmelt.
-David
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