- Artichokes are a member of the thistle family. The part of the plant we eat is the flower, which hasn't bloomed yet.
- They originated in the Mediterranean. The first written mention of them was around 40-70 AD in The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides, a book on the medicinal uses of plants.
- The Greeks and Romans considered them to be aphrodisiacs. It was forbidden for women to eat them in some parts of the world until the 16th century because of this.
- Artichokes were introduced to England by the Dutch in the 1500s. America got them courtesy of French and Spanish immigrants in the 19th century.
- The scientific name for the artichoke is Cynara cardunculus, which comes from a Greek myth. While Zeus was visiting his brother Poseidon, he fell in love with a girl he saw, whose name was Cynara. Zeus took her home with him and made her a goddess. However, she got lonely on Mount Olympus and kept sneaking off to visit her family. Seems reasonable enough, but Zeus wasn't having it. He was so angry that he not only threw her out of Mount Olympus but also turned her into an artichoke.
- The world's largest producer of artichokes is Italy.
- In the USA, the only state which grows artichokes is California. Most of the crop is grown in Monterey County, which has adopted the artichoke as its official vegetable. The small town of Castroville in Monterey County calls itself the Artichoke centre of the world. Each year there is an artichoke festival there and someone is crowned the Artichoke Queen. A lot of sources say that Marilyn Monroe was the first to hold the title in 1947, before she was famous. However, it seems it was an honorary title given to her while visiting the area promoting her career. The festival didn't start until 1961 and the first Artichoke Queen to be crowned at the festival was Sally DeSante Hebert.
- In Italy they make a liqueur from artichokes which is called Cynar. In some parts of the world they also make herbal tea from them, which has a slightly bitter woody flavour.
- Artichokes have one of the highest antioxidant levels of any vegetable.
- Between 40-60% of people find that everything tastes sweet after they eat artichokes. This is because of two compounds in artichokes, cynarin and chlorogenic acid, stimulate their sweetness receptors. This is probably a genetic thing.
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