Artichoke Party - advice needed

Had an artichoke party last night. As relative newbies, my son & I inherited a couple of globe artichoke plants, that are proving quite productive. As they seem to be a bit of a s** to prepare & cook and we weren't too sure what to put with them, we decided that both familes should get together & we would cook several & try them simply with a few dips.
Taking a recipe off the web, we simply steamed them with some garlic, lemon, & bay leaf in the water. We dipped the petals in butter, lemon juice, or mayo & balsamic vinegar.
Absolutely great.
BUT - there was very little edible flesh on them (base of the petals, & heart), despite being pretty big heads - size of tennis balls. So, were they tough / very little edible because I'd left them to get so large, or because it's been so dry & so they've not got fleshy enough? Should I be picking them smaller & then maybe more of them will be edible? Can I realistically expect to get them as tender as I've experienced on real Italian pizzas?
I love the taste, but these were something of a disappointment in terms of edible content 

Mine were similar - I was wondering if I should have thinned them out to one per plant when they were small, so they would grow bigger. Mine are the size of tennis balls - but they do grow lovely purple tops which the bees like so I'm leaving the rest for them I think.

I can't be bothered eating something where the remains are larger than what you started with, but that's just me! :blink: On the coastal plain here is the main artichoke growing region for France - fields and fields of them. They seem to fall into two categories: football sized ones which are green and tinier jobs which are purple. They are all irrigated and grow in free-draining sandy soil. The purple ones are the ones they use  here on pizzas - they kind of pare back a round or two of the outside leaves, chop off the pointy ends of the leaves and then steam them whole, or slice them vvvvvfine and lay them on pizza raw or add to salad. It doesn't look as if they reduce the number of heads per plant.They are both harvested in late May early June, so maybe yours are bit late even accounting for the fact that you are further North. This is all I can add to the thread, but I hope you can find something useful!! Once they have stopped harvesting them the flowers open out and we have fields of giant purple thistles!

Yes, many thanks indeed. I'll try some of the smaller ones to see if they're any more tender. If not, then perhaps I will also plant more asparagus