General Information
Although Cardoni’s harvested stalks have the initial appearance of celery, the stalks should not be crisp like celery. They actually should feel heavy and moist. Cardoni’s stalks are pale pistachio in color with longitudinal furrows and a suede-like texture. Once picked and trimmed, the few remaining leaves should also be pale, grey-green and soft. The leaves, however are not recommended for eating. When cooked, the stalks are meaty, nutty and bittersweet.
History
Cardoni is native to Northwest Africa. It is believed to have been cultivated for thousands of years in the central and western Mediterranean regions of Europe. It is known as a highly evasive plant that can take over a garden and if left to seed, spread for miles around. It is so successful at escaping cultivation that it is legally listed as a “noxious weed”. Cardoni is a relatively unimportant food crop outside of Western Europe, specifically Italy. It has been documented several times throughout agricultural journals and books that cardoni do not produce enough edible plant for the space that they take up within a garden, noting that the crop can never pay enough for the ground it claims. Often gardeners simply choose to plant the cardoni for its ornamental value, as it produces crowns of bold violet blue thistle flowers in late summer and autumn. The Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britian gave the Garden Award of Merit to the cardoni, regaling it as one of the most important plants of the past 200 years.
