Fed Square Harvest: The Artichoke

Artichokes – the ugly and abstruse ‘beard’ of the perennial thistle plant, formally known as Cynara Cardunculus…a name which, in my mind, conjures thoughts of some sort of nasty fungal disease. Sounds appetising? Makes you want to dash down to the markets and return with a hefty pile of ‘chokes? No, didn’t think so.

But someone down at Federation Square must have a serious fondness for this underrated vegetable because they have taken it upon themselves to sex-up the artichoke’s image with an entire festival in its honour. Fed Square Harvest: The Artichoke will take place on Sunday 29 July and will encompass cooking demos, a pop-up artichoke garden, workshops and roving performers. Artichokes will also appear as the produce du jour in at many of the Fed Square restaurants throughout the weekend.

If you still aren’t sold, consider this: thanks to their positive effects on the liver, many people swear by artichokes as a hangover treatment. So when you wake on Sunday morning in a world of pain and regret, forget hair of the dog and remember the vegetables with spiny buds that hide a tender heart…

WHEN: Sunday 29 July, 10am-4pm
WHERE: Federation Square, corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets, Melbourne
WEB: fedsquare.com/events/fed-square-harvest-the-artichoke/