Globe artichoke varieties

[BeatTheSeasons]

Hi everyone

I've just bought 5 globe artichoke plants online from Mr Fothergills (10% off and free P&P this weekend). The variety is Concerto F1, and it says on the website that "this purple headed variety produces beautifully coloured conical chokes with delicious meaty petals".

However, I've just read in my 1970s kitchen gardening book the advice to "always choose varieties with green globes, which are delicious and tender: purple globes have beautiful flowers but are not worth eating".

Am I lining myself up for a disappointment with the purple ones, or has plant breeding moved on in the last 35 years? Does anyone know much about globe artichoke varieties in general?

Thanks in advance

[taff]

I've just sown some more violetto precoce, from franchi seeds, another pruple variety, and according to their blurb, it tastes less 'iron' than larger varieies.
I have high hopes because when I bought them, I bought some other seeds too, and the bloke [one of the people in charge it seems] recommended one variety of pumpkin over another because it looked horrible, but tasted much better. I'm sure if I'd bought the wrong ones, he's have told me. Mind you, he also told me to sow in October....

[sewer rat]

I look after various gardens including the garden at Balloan Castle which is right on the coast near Portmahomack. There are loads of globe artichokes, both purple and green in the garden (both the veg garden and the courtyard garden) and they seem to really thrive in the salt air. To be honest I do not know the varieties as both were there when I started but they all taste pretty much the same to me. Not to everyone's taste, and some people might be put off when they find earwigs between the petals,