What Fresh Madness is this?

The Baked Thursday Custard is the one point of sanity; around which the rest of this operation giddily orbits..

But globe artichokes? In November?

Thought it was a bit balmy sitting outside for lunch on the first of the month....
And then these budding beauties...Regrown from a plant cut earlier in the season.

They are a fiddle to pull to bits after 40 mins steaming.
But if you like the flavour it's a proper slow food treat; dipping the ends of the petals in melted butter and pulling off the flesh with your teeth.

Then scraping off the hairy choke, and tucking into the nutty nugget hidden at its heart.

Definitely not for folks who only see food as fast fuel.

And do bear in mind they can be seriously spikey; they are after all; part of the fearsome thistle tribe...