The Artichoke

The other week, while sorting through the artichokes at Mishmor Ayalon farm, I started thinking about how peeling an artichoke is a bit therapeutic.

You start with the outer leaves, which are pretty hard and not really edible. With each leaf, you get a little closer to the heart, and the leaves get softer, more tender.

It is kind of how, with people, getting past the surface level stuff takes time and effort. You go through the motions, the small talk, until you start hitting the good stuff—those soft, inner leaves where things get more interesting.

Getting to the heart, though, that’s where the real challenge is. You have to carefully remove the choke, this fuzzy part that’s not pleasant to eat. It’s a delicate operation, almost like navigating through someone’s fears or insecurities. And then, there it is—the heart. It’s tender, delicious, and worth all the effort, a moment that softly declares, “This is what it’s all been for.”

All the peeling, the effort to get to the core of something, it’s a lot like building connections with people. It’s messy, it takes work, but the heart of it all? Totally worth it. Never thought I’d learn so much from an artichoke, but there you go.