12. Artichokes: Dinner Is a Flower Head That Hasn’t Opened Yet
A whole artichoke already looks a little unusual in the produce aisle, with its tightly overlapping scales. Leave it on the plant instead of harvesting it and the mystery becomes clearer. It can open into a spectacular purple, thistle-like flower head.
Globe artichokes grow on large plants with jagged, silvery-green leaves. The rounded buds sit on tall stems and are harvested while still closed. The bloom in the photograph shows what happens later, when the plant gets to finish the job.
That creates a particularly good before-and-after comparison. One stage belongs beside a bowl of melted butter; the next could be the centerpiece of a flower border. Gardeners can even leave some buds to bloom for visiting pollinators. After seeing the purple version, the artichoke on a dinner plate starts looking less like an armored vegetable and more like a flower caught just before its big reveal.
