Random fact:
Artichokes are a type of thistle. The globe artichoke is actually an immature flower bud (one of only two, I think, commonly eaten in Western cuisines); the choke is the bloom, with all the bristliness one would expect from a thistle.
They may not be
really commonly eaten in Western cuisines, but don't forget day lily buds. My gran used to send the cousins out to the day lily patch with instructions to pick buds that "would open tomorrow". She trimmed the stem, and treated them very much like green beans. I did that with my kids when they were little and we had a major day lily infestation near our trailer.
On more festive occasions, I'd slice the buds into 3/8 inch sections and cook them in chicken broth, along with either rice or noodles and some chopped chives. *musing* Hmm... May have to try that with onion broth.
Once in a while we would dig up handsful of the day lily tubers, wash them, boil them and serve them as nibbles. Not very often, though, as a gardening neighbor warned me of a glycoside contained in the tuber that could build up to toxic levels if a person ate the tubers frequently. At this remove, and being without lily tubers to obsess about, I don't remember what she called the compound. I never took food chemistry so I lack the background to know for certain. *sigh*
