Tender and sweet when picked young. Tough as the season progressed.

This is a "must have" next winter. What variety did you plant?

I planted a purple one that was called Tempo, but they replaced it with an improved version called Opera and also some Green Globe. The seeds came from gourmetseed.com

Getting our seed order together. These are hardy one zone 6 and one zone 7.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/assets/information/artichoke-globe-8968.pdf
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-8637-opera-f1.aspx

Rich, try both. I've had luck with both of those. Just remember to start them early inside under lights (lmid-late February). Mine fruit earlier when they get hardened off properly (for about a month) with cool spring temps. Just remember to bring them back in if its going to freeze at night. They're finicky in lower zones, so experiment with different hardening off times and see what happens.