March 16 is National Artichoke Hearts Day, a day to celebrate and chow down on these nutritious, delicious plants. Artichokes are from the Mediterranean and are one of the oldest foods in the world — the Greeks and Romans ate them in the 8th century! Today, we love eating them boiled, baked, steamed, grilled, fried, and every other which way. In America, 99.9% of the artichokes we buy are grown in California, and in fact, the artichoke is the official state vegetable! To get to heart of that matter, we love everything about this yummy vegetable.