Artichoke anyone?

Both W and I love globe artichokes, though we've different ideas about how they should be served.

My parents were quite unusual for their time and background - both came from working Yorkshire families, but Mum did French at University and spent considerable time en famille in France during her late teens/early twenties.  So they probably learnt to like them during visits to friends of mum's in France, and so they grew them.  They always served them cold, with a vinaigrette dip.  

My parents were also early adopters of courgettes - my memory of those is that the flowers had to be fertilised by hand.  I didn't learn to love those, however - I think mum always just boiled them, and tended to overcook them

W doesn’t recall when he first tried artichokes, but his memory was of eating them warm, with a butter, lemon and garlic dip.

Our friend S kindly gave us a couple from her garden - huge ones.  So W cooked one for dinner, and served it his way - it was very tasty.  

I think a couple of plants would do well in our garden - you can always let them flower if you can't keep up with their production!