Me arties!

With the moral support of the fair Claire – queen of beekeepers and sewer of sweet things – I plucked up the courage to tackle the artichokes. You see here the result, from this:

to this, one lovely wee jar of pickled hearts:

via Maggie Beer's beautiful book Maggie's Harvest. 

Apparently the little ones that sprout sideways from the main stem are the best for pickling; I confess that by evening the effort of cooking the big ones with my little man at my skirts was beyond me and they dried with the heat of the dying day and retired to the compost, thence to the worms…

But I shall enjoy me little pickled arts!