when boiling them, and how will i know if they are ready?

Smaller chokes-15-20 min in boiling waterlarger: 20-30 minutesthey are ready when the center is tender, slice em down the middle starting on the stem end to find out, but that's not really necessary. It's basically trial and error, but even for the biggest ones it wont take more than 25-30 min.

place a fork or small knife in the end it will be tender like a baked potato or when a leaf comes off easy korkie