The peak season for artichokes lasts several months : from May to November.




The artichoke is a domesticated thistle ... Have you seen it blooming ? The flower looks like the thistle’s one and it smells so good…

The reproduction of the artichoke is often done thanks to a rejection from an other artichoke that grows beside and must be replanted. The plant is almost a bush, which can reach 2 meters high and provides several artichokes (big ones) for 2 or 3 years.
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Its name comes from the Italian language which took it from Arabic. Originally, the plant is Mediterranean. Already known in Italy during the 9th century, the marriage of the French King Henry II with the Italian Catherine de Medici (1533) who loved it made him popular in France.

Even if it is a Mediterranean plant, it grows well in Brittany- the culture began early 19th century-, specially on the North coast, where the climate is quite mild. The famous golden belt around Roscoff is the coast for early vegetables and 75% of the artichokes produced in France come from the area.



In France the favorite one is the camus de Bretagne,the largest species (2 to 3 kg per head), the one eaten peeled. The southern one is much smaller and often eaten like in Spain or Italy, in oil.

Read it in French : Artichaut de Bretagne

Do you know that dandelion is a french name… dent de lion which means lion teeth… because of the shape of its leaves.

In April, land is covered with dandelion flowers. Yes indeed, this plant is useful and the wonders of the dandelion are to be discovered…

First of all it is an easy plant to find…It grows almost everywhere, even in weird places like walls or concrete…



But be careful not to confuse them with other plants : more than hundred species are alike and have also yellow flowers. But they are not as tasty or even they can be toxic.

How to recognize a dandelion ?

The flower smells honey and if you eat its heart, it slightly sweet and taste like honey.
The stem is hollow and oozes a white liquid.
There is only one flower per stem.
Once it’s faded, the plant has fine hairs… that’s the best way to recognize them.



Its leaves are dentated : that’s the origin of its name, remember…
In French we call it pissenlit (piss in bed) because of its diuretic properties.
What to do with it ?

In France, the classical salad with potatoes, bacon and eggs.
The leaves can also be eaten cooked as spinach.
The roots were used during the second world war as a substitute to coffee.
The flowers, melliferous (plants that bees used to make honey), are used to make a wonderful jelly.



Read it in French : Vertus des plantes sauvages : le pissenlit

Buckwheat is not what it’s name suggests : it’s not wheat neither a cereal or a grain. It is a Polygonaceae, a sister of rheum, docks or sorrels.

In French and even in Breton, its name is blé noir (black wheat, the flour is dark) and it is used to make the famous galettes de blé noir (sarrasin).

Archeologists found it in Brittany in prehistorical pollen. But it is a common plant in Britain since the 15 th C, probably because it was reintroduced at that time in the region. And soon it became the basis of the food of the breton farmers.

Because it was so easy to grow it in Brittany : first of all, buckwheat is a crop that loves acidic or low fertility soils, it needs lots of water too. And Brittany was the place… we have “bad” soils and lots of rain.



As it grows quickly, farmers used to cultivate it beetween the winter crop and the summer one. It was also used to cover the fields and then as fertilizer.
Farmers could use hand mills to obtain flour, they did not have to use the mill which one must pay for!!!
During the 19th C, Brittany was producing 50% of the French buckwheat.

At the end of the 19th C, buckwheat was abandoned for new cereals and potatoes. And its cultivation began to decrease. During the 80's, 90's, crêperies had to import the flour from Russia or China as it was no more cultivated in France. And with the green movement, hardy plants have a new life : farmers in Center Brittany began to produce it again. Now you find organic buckwheat produced here, in the region.

Today buckwheat has other nice advantages : gluten free, it is also a good provider of vitamins, proteins, minerals such as iron… it is nice for food allergy.

Beer is also done with buckwheat in Brittany.



And all over the world, buckwheat has its specialities. Specially in its original region South East Asia : in Japan, people eat it as pasta. Or the grains are used to make special pillows to relax…

Read it in French : Blé noir ou sarrasin en bretagne : une farine miracle