LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 127 



done after the heads are boiled tender. The 

 bracts are easily removed as eaten. We dip the 

 tender white end into melted butter, and finally 

 eating the white "bottom" with the same season- 

 ing. 



Dressed with oil and vinegar, the tender por- 

 tions of boiled artichokes make a delicious salad. 

 Many more ways of cooking and serving this 

 high-quality vegetable will be hunted up by all 

 who like it. 



The artichokes grown so extensively for market 

 and for home use in France can be grown here 

 but we have not got at it yet. The plant is very 

 lusty, even as it grows wild in Barbary and 

 southern Europe. In the garden it grows easily 

 to a height of three or four feet, and its hand- 

 some cut leaves are a yard or more in length. It 

 deserves to be raised, if only as an ornamental 

 plant. 



The numerous varieties of artichoke grown in 

 the gardens of rich and poor in France are all reg- 

 ularly propagated by suckers rather than by seeds. 

 These new shoots start from the main stem 

 just underground. They are cut off, each with a 

 bit of the old stem as a "heel." One or more 

 suckers are left to make a new top on the old 

 plant, which outlives its usefulness in three years. 



