The artichokes are finally about ready. In fact, a little bit too ready:

Over the weekend I picked this artichoke. This is my first time harvesting artichokes so I was not too sure when to pick them. However I was a little late - the next day it started to bloom a little bit while sitting on the counter. I'm still going to see if the heart is good within - I'm hoping so. I also had one of the same size that I left on the plant, so I went outside and it had bloomed:

How cool! So I now know to pick them a bit earlier. Also these are Violetto artichokes. They are smaller than normal artichokes. I'm not quite sure if the petals are big enough to eat, so we'll probably just use them for the hearts.