Artichoke - Cultivation

Cultivation

In the Maghreb (North Africa), where they are still found in the wild state, the seeds of artichokes, probably cultivated, were found during the excavation of Roman-period Mons Claudianus in Egypt. Names for the artichoke in many European languages come from the Arabic الخرشوف al-khurshūf. The Arabic term ardi-shoki (أرض شوكي), which means "ground thorny" is a false etymology of the English name. The cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), a naturally occurring variant of the same species, is native to the South Mediterranean, though it has not been mentioned in extant classic literature. Artichokes were cultivated in Sicily since the time of the ancient Greeks, the Greeks calling them kaktos. In this period, the leaves and flower heads, which cultivation had already improved from the wild form, were eaten. The Romans, who called the vegetable carduus, received the plant from the Greeks. Further improvement in the cultivated form appears to have taken place in the Muslim period in the Maghreb, although the evidence is inferential only.

Globe artichokes are known to have been cultivated at Naples around the middle of the 9th century. Modern scholar Le Roy Ladurie, in his book Les Paysans de Languedoc, has documented the spread of the artichoke:

"The blossom of the thistle, improved by the Arabs, passed from Naples to Florence in 1466, carried by Filippo Strozzi. Towards 1480 it is noticed in Venice, as a curiosity. But very soon veers towards the northwest...Artichoke beds are mentioned in Avignon by the notaries from 1532 onward; from the principle towns they spread into the hinterlands...appearing as carchofas at Cavaillon in 1541, at Chateauneuf du Pape in 1553, at Orange in 1554. The local name remains carchofas, from the Italian carciofo...They are very small, the size of a hen's egg...and are still considered a luxury, a vaguely aphrodisiac tidbit that one preserved in sugar syrup."

The Dutch introduced artichokes to England, where they grew in Henry VIII's garden at Newhall in 1530. They were brought to the United States in the 19th century, to Louisiana by French immigrants and to California by Spanish immigrants.