Weekend Coffee Share#36-The Official Vegetable

21 Replies

Coffee’s ready. Today we have Columbian coffee. It is pretty good for a change. We used to drink Columbian all the time until we discovered the darker roasts. There are blueberry bagels to go with it. I got a couple of walks in this week. I need to get out early though. Yesterday it was about 85 degrees F at 6:30 AM when I started out. It is still pretty quiet around here at that hour. I did see a few other walkers and people with dogs again. They need to walk their dogs before it gets too hot. One thing that I am missing is roadrunners. I haven’t seen any lately. While walking, I admire all the different plants in the front yards. I came across an interesting one yesterday.

Parry’s or Artichoke agave

These are a type of agave plant and they do look like an artichoke. Although, you need to be careful of the needles.

I do like regular artichokes and we did enjoy eating a few this year. California supplies about 100% of the artichokes to the country. They are grown all over but I am familiar with the farms on the central coast below Santa Cruz. The cooler climate and moist air are good for artichokes. I usually cook them in a couple of inches of boiling water for about 45 minutes. I trim the leaves ,cut off the tops, and squeeze some lemon juice over them. I looked up a recipe on the California Artichoke Advisory Board website. I may try it in the future because it looks easier than the way I do it. When I trim the leaves, I cut off those little needles. The artichoke needles are not as scary as the ones on the agaves here. While reading about our artichokes I found out that the artichoke is California’s official vegetable.

Cooking artichokes in water

We like to eat them with melted butter or mayonnaise.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.

21 thoughts on “Weekend Coffee Share#36-The Official Vegetable”

    1. Deborah Drucker Post author

      We’ve had Columbian available here for quite a while. I remember those commercials with Juan Valdez. We have more choices these days. Columbian is still good. Thanks for stopping by, John.

      Like

      Reply ↓
      1. John Holton

        I didn’t actually meet Juan Valdez, but what’s interesting is that, even in a city like Bogotá you’ll have people come down out of the mountains with their donkeys. Most of them sell cigarettes…

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Gary A Wilson

    Ah Deborah – I both know these thistles well and have driven past those same fields many times. We love them prepared much as you do and don’t forget how wonderful the heart is, trimmed out of the plant after cooking and skimming the soft meat off of the leaves then mixing with a little mayo and oooo – what a delicacy!
    Now I want some. . .
    Thanks for the reminder of what I need to add to our shopping list.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  7. Scribble and Scran

    I didn’t know artichokes were California’s official veg! I always associate them with Italy given the name of a cookbook I have ‘Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes’ by Anna del Conte. Something I have not tackled in the kitchen, as they do not grow in abundance here. I do love them though.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Deborah Drucker Post author

      Well I guess you wouldn’t know unless you grew up here. It’s a beautiful part of California, on the coast, where the farms are located. Although, I read they are grown other places around the state, I always associate them with the area near Santa Cruz. I cook them in a simple way and it is very easy. I hope you get to enjoy them again soon. Thanks for stopping by.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  8. Astrid

    How cool that the artichoke is California’s official vegetable! I have only eaten the odd one on a veggie pizza, but don’t really like them that way. I’ll definitely look up other ways of cooking them.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

Comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.