Sometimes a story needs room, lots of room, to be properly told.  And one of the best places to find long, delicious food tales is the University of California's Gastronomica.  Several of Zester Daily's writers have been published there.  If you pick up the latest edition, fall 2009, Volume 9, Issue 4, you will find Clifford Wright's piece on the mysterious origins of the artichoke.  Is this spiky vixen of a vegetable as old as ancient Greece? Check it out.
http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/assets/Gastronmica-Artichokes-wright.pdf