What do these two have in common?
A tasty, vegetarian goat’s cheese….
Cardo Goat's Cheese made at Sleight Farm, Timsbury, Bath
….and a blue thistle-like flower.
Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus)
Answer: The vegetarian rennet used to “set” the cheese is made from an infusion of Cardoon stamens.
Who would have thought it! I certainly had no idea.
The plant world is full of surprises.
[The Cardoon picture is courtesy of Wikipedia and is in the Public domain]
9 comments
Well I never !
Rennet comes from a calf’s stomach? Or used to? I guess it is probably genetically modified now. Not so sure about the ethics of dairy farming, but this vegetarian LOVES cheese.
It certainly is! The cheese looks delicious, I love cheese also with rennet. Cardoon is a vegetable eaten in the French part of Switzerland. I think the aperitif Cynar contains some ingredient of this plant as well, so this pretty blue flowered plant is much in demand.
Both are totally new to me. I guess I would never able to taste or see them in my part of the world. Thanks for sharing.
What is the trick to growing cardoon? I would love to grow them (even if I don’t have goat cheese) but have not been successful.
I’ve never heard of Cardoon. The blooms are beautiful!
At first, I was thinking you were asking what the cheese and the plate have in common – and hoping the answer wasn’t spots.
Cardoon! Oh! I want to grow Cardoons!
Lucy
I love goat cheese! In fact it is the only cheese I can eat these days… great to know, though I doubt I can buy this cheese here. Looks yummy! Carol
Cool information! I have heard of cardoon, but never grown it. Thanks for the reminder I need to eat the feta I got at our farmer’s market this fall.
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