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Beth
I live just outside of Chicago, IL, and last year I planted 6 artichokes and they grew really large, but no artichokes. So I let them die back and I covered them with leaves and they came back this spring. So now they are growing large and I have about 6 chokes on ones of the plants and it is only the middle of June.
If I can grow them in Chicago, then you should be able to grow them in California. Kathryn

I aim to grow some on my deck in toronto this year for they are delicious. You asked for a recipe and this is one i can't get enough of... Approx 12 baby artichokes with all the outside leaves stripped off and the remainder chopped off just above the heart. Halve each artichoke. Sauté them with some Yukon gold potatoes chopped into cubes roughly the same size as the artichokes. Simmer covered for approx 5 minutes then squeeze over the juice of a lemon and add approx 1 pint of good chicken stock. Simmer until a knife will enter the artichoke. Put the vegetables into a dish and reduce the liquid until syrupy then add back onto the vegetables. Salt and pepper and lots of chopped curly parley. Yum

4. "Avoid food products that carry health claims."

Wouldn't sushi and the raw bar be included in this?

I've read all of Michael Pollan's book and this is considered more guideline than commandments. The first one is just the first general step. He's referring to, say, Go-Gurt. She wouldn't know what to do with it - brush her teeth? As for eating healthy - I'm a busy college student but I make it a conscious decision to eat right since I've done enough reading to know that poor diet high in animal-based proteins and fats is what is driving the obesity, heart disease, diabetes and even cancer in our country. Don't eat organic - it is often shipped from very far away so it's not always that good for you since it's not fresh and has a high carbon footprint due to transportation. I go to the grocery store twice a week and spend about $30 ($60/wk) on fruits and vegetables and seeds/nuts mostly. It would be convenient for me to just eat at fast food restaurants and get my quick heavy fix of calories, but if i ate twice a day at Taco John's, McDonalds, Burger King, etc.. it would cost me about ten dollars a day ($70/wk). Or even eating on campus costs about $50-60 so it's looks like it's better to just make my own food at home. And it's MUCH cheaper to make your OWN pizzas instead of ordering them out all the time. It's just less convenient. I actually love the time I spend making my food... cutting the vegetables. It creates so much anticipation for what you're about to eat you're about to explode by the time you finally get to eat it.

The problem with corn-fed beef is that the cattle are literally sick when slaughtered. A grass fed cow reaches slaughter weight around 4 years (~48 months), but a corn fed cow is grass fed for 6 months and then sent to a feedlot where they are fed a corn/grain based diet until slaughtered at 14-16 months (about 8 months to reach 48 month equivalent). The grain, that their digestive tracks aren't meant to digest, can make them very sick. The biggest health problem seen on feedlots is bloat from all the grain that they're systems just can't properly break down which creates large amounts of gas (leading to methane that gets in the air). Because the corn makes them so sick, they are injected with antibiotics (which you then eat). Your food is only as good as what your food ate. Of course the beef tastes different - corn is the basis of almost our whole diets by sweetening up this or that or making foods more appealing. But the meat tastes so empty compared to properly prepared grass-fed beef. It's not really the humanity of these operations that keeps me from eating beef, it's knowing that the food I'm eating would have died within a few months after if not slaughtered at 14 months from health complications due to force fed corn.

You find once you care about what you eat and where it's coming from, all of these guidelines are pretty much common sense and come pretty easy to follow. Most of the rest of the world consider food always near the top of the priority list - and they don't have the rates of disease as we see in this country. Wonder why?

I'd like to argue that cows that are grass-fed, grass-finished, as just as good tasting as corn finished. It's also better for the cows, because feeding them grain, such as corn, is stressful to their systems - it also diminishes the omega-3 content they gain while eating grass.

I've found a good brand recommended by Eating Well magazine, called La Cense Beef. They recently sent out an email to their customers letting them know about a giveaway their doing I thought I'd share the site:

www.winagrassfedcow.com

Well...we got 6 viable plants from a pack of 30 seeds, each in their own peat pot...1 block into Maryland...across the street from the District of Columbia. And this last summer was hot, baby, and dry. With careful watering, 5 of the 6 did great and I anticipate a good crop of 'chokes next summer. I know that they're in too much sun, but we have almost no shade in the garden. We love the plants and hope to get some 'chokes, but if not, then we've got some cool plants.

Okay, as a general guideline I like the rules. I think that they would be very difficult to adhere to all the time, and perfectly, as they are written, but they're generally decent rules. There is one exception, and it's as much about the other comments as the rules. Everyone is very keen to help "The Poor" eat healthier - get more fresh foods, less processed foods, etc. In principle, I'm bang alongside that. In practice, that won't necessarily help. Having a refrigerator stocked to the brim, for free, with good things won't be all that useful to a lot of the working poor. If you're working two jobs, trying to get your kids to and from school, possibly caring for a sick relative, etc, food is just going to slip to the bottom of the priority list. (I have a very good friend going through all that right now). You're going to pick up convenience foods that probably taste like feet, but fill you up and get you out the door quickly. Given that there will always be a certain segment of the population that is dependent on convenience foods, perhaps there needs to be more focus on making those foods less harmful than on eliminating them from use.

That's so funny that your dog likes artichokes. I didn't think animals liked them at all (except humans of course).

Writing of artichoke consumption in ancient Rome, Pliny remarked "thus we turn into a corrupt feast the earth's monstrosities, those which even the animals instinctively avoid."

I guess Pliny had it all wrong.

Well, from all your help, it sounds like my artichokes are in luck. They are in a partially shaded area of my herb garden. We recently moved to California from northern Florida (my husband is in the military). I can't wait to get my first spring planting underway. The artichokes and some herbs are as far as I've gotten, as well as some citrus trees that come with the house. Thanks for all your help and recommendations.

re #10: I brought my potted jalapeno into the house this fall (we live in New England) and it recently started flowering. I've got two little peppers on the way! Peppers are self pollinating, so one plant is enough, but I would think two would be better. We have been using tufts of dog hair as a sort of paint brush to move pollen from one flower to another since we don't have bees in the house. So, it is possible to grow a little bit of food indoors in the winter.

Beth, I know you just moved to San Diego County, but are you also new to the entire state of California? If so, and if you like growing things, you must go out and purchase the Sunset Western Garden Book -- it's the local gardening Bible, and you will quickly find it indispensable to making things grow in our climate.

Santa Cruz county is definitely the artichoke capitol of the world. But, fortunately, San Diego is famous for it's amazing mild microclimate, and you can grow lots of things there that would suffer elsewhere in the Southland. I'm not sure what part of north county you're in, but I'm going to assume you're in Sunset zone 23 (a bit inland, but still near the coast) or 24 (right on the coast). If you're living along I-15, you're probably in zone 21.

Anyway, according to the Bible (Sunset), artichokes in our area should be grown in partial shade as a perennial. They grow "luxuriantly" from spring through fall. You should plant dormant roots or plants in winter or early spring (so you're doing okay there), about 4-6 ft apart. After active growth starts, to ensure a crop, water plants thoroughly once a week, wetting the entire root system. Your "edible buds" will come in early summer only. Harvest buds while they're still tight and plump. And, as recommended above by Hunter, encourage a second crop by cutting off the main stalk an inch above the ground after harvesting the last bud of the first crop. The new sprouts at the base will grow faster and produce sooner than if you leave the plant uncut.

Good luck!

Regarding #1, in the book he says your great-grandmother, or if you're middle aged or older, your great-great grandmother. And the point is that it's a decent mnemonic for discerning what's food and what is a food product, not a literal rul to live by.

Here they are, Michael Pollan's Twelve Commandments for Serious Eaters, from his new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.

Did Pollan use the term "Twelve Commandments"? It doesn't sound like him.

It makes a difference, rhetorically. Ethos, Logos, Pathos.

Pathos is being strung out to a vibrating chord with the use of the term "Twelve Commandments", which alters the perception of those reading the phrases.

There's also the fact that context sometimes can be everything. Take one of these KISS statements out of context and it might appear different than it is exactly meant to be in the original context of the complete written material.