The season begins in the second half of November, when the larger, more select globes are cut for the market and the table. January and February mark the high point of the artichoke season, when the artichokes are cut by hand every day. It’s gruelling work. Picking will be done in the cool of the early mornings and evenings in the hot months, but can go on through the day during the cooler ones. Each plant will yield about 10 heads. Picking goes on until April, early May, but from February onwards, the artichokes are smaller and deemed fitter for processing than for immediate consumption. After three years, the plants are grubbed up after suckers have been cut off and transplanted to a new site to guarantee the genetic integrity and quality of the new crop, and the old field is turned over to wheat, and so the cycle goes on.

Naturally, they have a pre-eminent place in the seasonal cycle of Sardinian cooking, preferably picked young, when the choke - la barba - is at its least choking, trimmed of the tough outside leaves, and served raw, crunchy and nutty, perhaps with bottarga di muggine, perhaps just dressed in extra virgin olive and lemon juice with some pane carasau on the side, or dipped in batter and fried, or braised and filled with ricotta or in any of the innumerable variations which will enrich meals while the season lasts and before their place is taken by the next brilliant vegetable flavour.

From crop to final production the artichokes need to be processed as follows. Once they are picked, they are transported to a factory in the nearest area in order to be selected, washed, cleaned, calibrated, cut and put in bulks with a light marination based on water and citric acid to preserve the pale green colour of the artichoke hearts from oxidising. Saclà’s Quality Control checks the raw materials all through the process.

At this stage the best artichokes are ready to be sent to the Asti factory for their final processing. Saclà simply puts into oils the quartered artichoke hearts and covers them with a blend of sunflower and extra-virgin olive oil seasoned with Mediterranean herbs.

Only after a careful Quality Control of over 30 chemical, physical and quality checks from raw materials right to the finished product at the laboratory of Saclà, our little pots are ready to leave Asti and reach all Italian and foreign tables of our consumers.