Even though people have this misconception that cooking artichokes are hard, if you use the correct technique, it shouldn’t cause many problems for you. You need to focus on trimming the spikes from the side and removing the head from the artichokes. That way, it will be easier for you to manage the recipe while trying to get to the heart of the vegetable. It can be incredibly delicious once you perfect your cooking technique.
Aside from cooking issues, you will also notice people complaining about the expensive price tag on artichokes. So, let us help you with a few reasons why artichokes are so expensive in an attempt to justify their price.
Why Are Artichokes So Expensive?
- Labor Hours
The primary reason behind artichokes being so expensive is that these vegetables are hand-picked. Yes, you read that correctly, there is no automation involved, and manual labor must go through the fields while collecting artichokes. Workers have to use sharp gardening tools to separate the vegetable from the plant and then collect it in a bin. Each artichoke is individually cut, and currently, there is no automated method behind this process.
So, a lot of labor hours have to be put into collecting artichokes. This is why you need to pay such a huge sum to get your hands on this vegetable. Compared to artichokes, most other vegetables go through automated procedures and are then supplied to the market. However, workers handle artichokes throughout the process and don’t involve any machinery in the initial harvest.
So, the high price tag on these vegetables is justified by the number of labor hours put into harvesting this vegetable. Sadly, there is nothing that you can do about this issue, and you will have to pay the premium price if you want to enjoy this delicious vegetable. Most people love to enjoy the core of this vegetable, but the outer leaves can also be consumed if processed correctly.
- Production Time
Another primary reason for artichokes being so expensive is that farmers have to dedicate a massive land for several years to grow fully-sized artichokes. Unlike other vegetables, you can’t get artichokes every season from a single farm. So, growing artichokes can be financially draining and requires a lot of commitment from the farmers. This justifies the high price tags as years of hard work produce artichokes, and not everyone is willing to make that commitment.
Besides that, farmers are assuming a lot of risk by not acquiring the opportunity cost of using the land to plant other vegetables. This is why they have to charge a lot of prices on artichokes because a lot of commitment and resources go into managing and growing these vegetables.
Furthermore, years upon years of commitment behind a single harvest doesn’t seem too rewarding to most farmers. This is why there is a high price tag on artichokes to motivate more farmers to grow them — that way, when the supply increases someday, there is a chance that prices will come down.
- Insufficient Supply
Even if a farmer commits by setting aside resources and land, the artichoke supply is too little to match the market demand. This imbalance in supply and demand creates an increase in prices as per the basic economic principles. There are just not enough farmers getting into growing artichokes because of their low production per acre. No one is willing to set aside acres upon acres of land just to get a little artichoke harvest.
This creates a hole in the supply side of things as there are not enough suppliers to keep up with the demand. So, the farmers who commit to planting artichokes have to charge a premium as they are sparing a considerable part of their land and forgoing opportunity costs to produce this vegetable. With this inflated risk and substantial initial investment, they have to charge a premium to cover the cost of land, labor, and resources that go into planting artichokes.
These reasons seem to justify the high price tag behind artichokes. Most people just prefer to go to restaurants to try dishes made from artichokes. That eliminates the hassle of cooking artichokes yourself, and you don’t have to bother with buying or storing them.