When we receive seed catalogs in the Fall and Winter month, it feels like no seed ought go unplanted. It also feels like we have a duty to explore new vegetables and flowers that we’ve never grown before. Toss in a bit of a challenge and we can’t really help ourselves. That’s how we wound up ordering and planting two varieties of artichoke. 

The challenge of growing artichokes in this climate is their biennial nature. Under normal circumstances, artichokes like to endure a cold period before setting chokes. So you need to set them outside early in the season so they are tricked into thinking they survived the cold. But you can’t let the little plants freeze and you can’t let them bake in a cold frame. We did the latter. It was a beautiful day and we went to work without raising the lid of the cold frame. Almost all of the artichoke we started from seed died that day. The few that survived, we planted. And a couple, as you can see, set chokes. Delighted as we were, we are not sure when to harvest. But I’m pretty sure this one is past it’s prime.

We are counting this as a success! A few artichokes are producing. Not nearly as many as we started with due to an unfortunate cold frame mistake, but still a few have managed to set. You might recall that artichokes are a little tricky in that you must fool them into thinking they have undergone a cold cycle before they will form fruits. We had our little shoots out in the cold frame for several week so they could enjoy the cool nights. And this seems to have worked.

We might try artichokes again. Not that I am a huge artichoke eater. We really planted them for the challenge, and also because we never planted them before. And also because it would make for an interesting farmers’ market product. We would need to be way more successful for the market to happen.

The hard part of the siding project is finished. Check that one off the list. Special thanks to Tom!

I still need to do some caulking and then painting and trim, but this is progress. And next a new back porch. And then a brick oven on the back porch. And meanwhile I’ve been obsessed with the new bathroom. I almost had the shower installed today, but ALL of the valve joints were leaking. I’m not a very good plumber – work is slow, joints leak and a huge ass-crack on display (seriously, I need a new belt). Unfortunately, I may need to disassemble to reach the leaky bits at this point.

But on the bright side, the Kohlrabi looks ready! We planted a different purple variety this year along with a few of the white – purple seem to have done better so far.