What is the history of the artichoke?

Answer 1

The artichoke dates back to at least the third century B.C. in Italy and Sicily. Ancient Greeks and Romans considered artichokes a delicacy and an aphrodisiac. In Ancient Greece, the artichoke was eaten to ensure the birth of boys. Wealthy Romans enjoyed artichokes prepared in honey and vinegar, seasoned with cumin, year round. After Rome fell, artichokes became scarce. Beginning about 800 A.D., North African Moors grew artichokes near Granada, Spain, and the Arab Saracens grew artichokes in Sicily. Between 800 and 1500, the artichoke was improved into the plant it is today. In 1466, the Strozzi family brought artichokes from Florence to Naples. In the mid 16th century, Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), married King Henry II (1519-1559), of France at the age of 14, and introduced artichokes to France. Martha Washington had a 17th-century recipe for "Hartichoak Pie." French immigrants brought artichokes to the Louisiana in 1806. In 1922, in Monterey County, California, Italian farmers began growing artichokes on land previously used to grow sugar beets, because artichokes were fetching higher prices than beets. Ciro "Whitey" Terranova, a member of the mafia and known as the "Artichoke King," began his monopoly of the artichoke market by purchasing all the produce shipped to New York from California and resold them at a profit. The ensuing "artichoke wars" led the Mayor or New York, Fiorello La Guardia, to declare artichokes illegal in New York, a ban he lifted after only one week because of his own love of the vegetable.