October 2000
A discussion of artichokes arose at one point on alt.polyamory, and one poster asked another (who had expressed a fondness for the plant) why artichokes appeared to hold a special meaning for zir. So I took this opportunity to chip in:
I know you weren't asking me, but...
When I was a kid, we lived in an area that was in the process of being turned from farming land into suburbs. We lived in the first house built on our road. Over the road, there was this limitless expanse (or so it seemed to me as a kid) of rolling space, densely populated with fierce thistles that were taller than I was, hidden valleys and creeks, and an old abandoned almond grove full of all sorts of interesting wildlife.
When I was twelve or so, I was informed by a friend of my parents that those huge spiky thistles we played among were in fact wild artichokes, and we were shown how to prepare and cook and eat them. Wow! Artichokes were cool, and we had millions of them growing over the road from us! Artichoke season became an annual ritual that I and my sisters looked forward to with relish each year. We'd troop out with big robust bags, ferocious cutting implements and my father's ancient motorcycle gauntlets (to protect us from the massively aggressive prickles), and come home again a couple of hours later with all the artichokes we could carry. We'd then spend the rest of the afternoon with fine scissors de-spiking them and then consume them, boiled and served with great gobs of butter, for the evening meal. What a delight!
The cultivated artichokes sold these days aren't a patch on the wild ones for flavour. They are positively pallid in comparison. Consequently, when I discovered a field full of artichoke plants that I hadn't previously known was nearby while walking my dog last year, it was was celebration time! Our household ate wild artichokes every day for the next week.
So for me, artichokes encompass the memories of the bits of my childhood that I liked best - wandering the lonely and ferocious thistle-fields for hours on my own or with my sisters, the joy of finding something unknown and hidden in that favourite place (we made many fascinating discoveries in the thistle fields and almond grove) and the delight of having a private wealth available only to us (because everyone else knew that they "were just thistles").