CARDOON IN FLOWER

I went on a flora hunt this morning and found lots. This is a cardoon flower with a wasp inside it.This particular plant, and others like it, are growing wild in an unused parking area about a mile from the house, but they could be escapees from a vegetable garden. It is native to Mediterranean countries and is a member of the Aster family, the same group as globe artichokes and thistles.

This one is from a plant about my height. See: entire plant The one I photographed two days ago was at least seven feet high but today I found that it had toppled over from its own weight.

Cardoons are still cultivated in France, Spain and Italy but it is considered a weed in Australia and other countries. It's a very useful weed. Not only is it edible but it is a vegetarian source of an enzyme to make cheese, oil can be made from it and it has been considered as a source of bio petrol.

The buds are very prickly and fairly unrewarding to eat. It is the stems that are used. They need to be cleaned, cut into reasonable sized pieces, kept in water with lemon juice, to prevent discolouration, until all of pieces are ready. Then it can be steamed or braised or used in soups and stews. It tastes very much like artichokes, what else? I quite like eating cardoon but am not keen on the preparation because the stems can be prickly.

It can be found in the shops in Italy but I do not know if elsewhere.

It contains only 17 calories per 3 1/2 ounces, 100 g, and is a good source of folate, calcium, magnesium and potassium.

The great advantage to this picture is that I didn't have to remove piles of tacky junk before taking it. Yesterday's fountain picture looks serene and pretty but before this effect could be achieved I had to remove from the scene: a clothes line with a bedspread upon it, a hated juicing gadget, four old computer keypads, a stack of chair cushions inhabited by spiders, empty coffee tins being saved for neighbours, bits of old rope, plastic bottles and an old rug. The picture looked cool, as well. It wasn't. It was hot as blazes out there and I hot footed it, literally and figuratively, back into the house after only a few dozen snaps. I did the same today.