Artichokes in the Wild

Connie and I are somewhat strange (maybe it comes from growing up in Oklahome and Tennessee?) in that when we drive cross-country we spend an inordinate amount of time discussing what crops are growing in the fields and orchards we can see. California always blows me away in that there are such a huge variety of food types you can see in the fields around you. Growing up in the South I remember seeing fields of cotton, soybeans, and rice. Some corn, and occasionally milo. Seeing open-top tractor trailer loads of tomatoes or onions or garlic (try following one of those on the highway!) just cracks me up.

So after conferring with my colleagues here, I thought I (we) might post occasionally on vegetables and other foods we see growing around us.
I saw this field of artichokes a couple of weeks ago when I was up in northern Santa Barbara County. These were in the Santa Maria Valley. We don't grow many artichokes around here, most are grown a couple of hundred miles north of here so it was cool seeing them.
This was a delightfully small, non-agribusiness kind of operation. The field couldn't have covered more than a couple of acres. We love artichokes and buy them often at the Farmer's Market here.

I grew up in a time and place when "exotic" vegetables like this were rarely seen. I vividly remember the first time I ate artichokes. I was a sophomore at Tulane, and a classmate who was a New Orleans native, invited me to have Sunday dinner with he and his parents. They were served steamed. I had never seen one before and had to be taught how to eat them. A delightful food experience.

Our e-mail exchange on vege-blogging brought this message from Libby, who grew up in the Bay Area. She tells some of her memories of California farming:

"When I was growing up in Berkeley my parents had some friends in Carmel --
when we went down to visit them we passed through acres and acres of
artichoke fields around Watsonville -- I remember the stucco stands that
were shaped like artichokes and sold tiny fried whole artichokes which we
ate on the spot. And then we would bring home big bags of the larger ones --
they were something like $1.00 for a grocery bag full.

I also remember driving past huge fields of corn between Willow and
Sacramento, as well as the onion fields around Vacaville. In the fall, when
we were returning from our summers at Echo Lake we could always tell when we
were by Vacaville because the smell of onions filled the air. And Vacavile
was where the traffic started slowing down a bit because the Carquinez
bridge by Vallejo was a draw bridge then and if it had to be pulled up, it
backed the traffic up for miles. The Martinez bridge didn't exist, and ships
were often being moved up to anchor in the mothball fleet up the river from
Martinez.

The other thing growing around Sacramento was rice -- the Yolo causeway
elevated the highway over the flooded fields just west of Sacramento. And
then there were the peach and nut groves...and roadside fruit stands. Davis
always smelled like scorched tomatoes in the fall from the Heinz ketchup
factory and on the two lane highway you followed huge trucks full of
tomatoes going to meet their end.

I hadn't thought about this stuff for years -- thanks."

The first in an occasional series.