Artichoke Festival (formally known as Castroville Artichoke Festival) is a food festival held annually in Monterey, a town in Monterey County of the U.S. State of California. The city, which calls itself the "Artichoke Center of the World", [1] began promoting the artichoke with a festival in 1960, and the festival has grown so large that it has been moved out of the town, into a nearby convention center. Artichoke Festival 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of this celebration.
Artichokes were brought to California by Italian immigrants in the late 19th century, and to Castroville in the 1920s when Andrew Molera planted an acre of artichokes on his ranch. In 1922, Angelo del Chiaro and his cousin leased 150 acres from Molera and expanded the artichoke crop. [2] By 1926, 12,000 acres in California, most of them in Castroville, were dedicated to growing artichokes. [3]
The Artichoke Festival evolved from an earlier May Days Parade and band competition. A pancake breakfast and a barbecue were added to the event and, in 1959, a band leader and three local business owners formed the Castroville Artichoke Advisory Board. The board came up with the name Castroville Artichoke Festival. [4] The two-day event is held every year in May, originally in Castroville and, since 2014, at the Monterey County Fair and Event Center. [5] In 2009, the festival marked its 50th year, and in 2011, 20,000 people attended the festival. [6]
Marilyn Monroe was crowned the 1st Honorary Artichoke Queen in 1948, Sally DeSante Hebert was crowned the 1st Festival Artichoke Queen in 1961 and the first Artichoke King was Andrew O'Desky in 1974. William Hung was crowned the Artichoke King on May 21, 2006. [7]
The festival is sponsored by local artichoke companies. It includes a parade, live music, an agro art competition with three-dimensional fruit and vegetable artwork, farmers markets, field tours, artichoke souvenirs sales, wine, beer & spirits garden, cooking demos, 5k beach run, canasta (basket) race, quilt challenge, and a Marilyn Monroe look-a-like contest. [8] The food at the festival includes artichokes – fried, sauteed, grilled, marinated, pickled, fresh, and creamed as soup, and cooked into cupcakes. [6] [5]
2020 saw the festival's cancellation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 61st was deferred to 2021.
In the Toot & Puddle episode "Putting the Art in Artichoke," the title characters visit Castroville for the Artichoke Festival.
In the Netflix series Stranger Things , the character Dustin wears a Castroville Artichoke Festival shirt in episodes 6–8.
Monterey County, officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas.
Castroville is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Monterey County, California, United States. At the time of the 2020 census the population was 7,515, up from 6,481 in 2010. Castroville is known for its artichoke crop and for the annual Castroville Artichoke Festival, leading to its nickname as the "Artichoke Center of the World".
Elkhorn is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Monterey County, California, United States.
Salinas is a city in the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area located along the eastern limits of the Monterey Bay Area, lying just south of the San Francisco Bay Area and 10 miles (16 km) southeast of the mouth of the Salinas River. The city is located at the mouth of the Salinas Valley, about eight miles (13 km) from the Pacific Ocean, and it has a climate more influenced by the ocean than the interior.
The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles and south of the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes the rugged, rural, and sparsely populated stretch of coastline known as Big Sur.
Andrew Molera State Park is a 4,800 acres (1,900 ha), relatively undeveloped state park on the Big Sur coast of California, United States, preserving land as requested by former owner Frances Molera. Situated at the mouth of the Big Sur River, the property was part of the Rancho El Sur land grant, and later owned by Californio pioneer John Bautista Rogers Cooper and his descendants. Cooper's grandchildren Andrew and Frances Molera inherited the property from their mother in 1918. Andrew popularized the artichoke in California in 1922, and died in 1931. In 1965, Frances sold the property to The Nature Conservancy, stipulating that the park to be created should be named for her brother.
William Hing Cheung Hung is a Hong Kong motivational speaker and former singer who gained fame in 2004 as a result of his unsuccessful audition singing Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the third season of the television series American Idol.
The Salinas Valley is one of the major valleys and most productive agricultural regions in California. It is located west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley.
The globe artichoke, also known by the names French artichoke and green artichoke in the U.S., is a variety of a species of thistle cultivated as food.
A food festival is a festival, that features food, often produce, as its central theme. These festivals have been a means of uniting communities through celebrations of harvests and giving thanks for a plentiful growing season.
Monterey State Historic Park is a historic state park in Monterey, California. It includes part or all of the Monterey Old Town Historic District, a historic district that includes 17 contributing buildings and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. The grounds include California's first theatre, and the Monterey Custom House, where the American flag was first raised over California.
Hartnell College is a public community college in Salinas, California. Established in 1920 as Salinas Junior College, Hartnell is one of 115 schools that constitute the California Community Colleges, one of the three higher education systems in California. It enrolls nearly 10,000 students, 56% of whom are Latino, and the college is a Hispanic-serving institution. Its name commemorates William Hartnell (1798–1854), who founded the first junior college in California. Hartnell's main campus is located less than a mile west of downtown Salinas. It also has four satellite campuses, one in the Alisal district of Salinas one in King City and another in Soledad and another in Castroville.
The Greek Food Festival of Dallas is a food festival held annually in Dallas, Texas (USA), featuring traditional Greek cuisine and Greek culture.
North Monterey County High School is a high school in Castroville, California, USA, was established in 1978. It serves the populations of Aromas, Castroville, Prunedale, Royal Oaks, Elkhorn and Salinas. The school is part of the North Monterey County Unified School District. North Monterey County High School is abbreviated on some official documents as NMCHS although it is more commonly known as either "North County" or "NC".
Juan Bautista Rogers Cooper was a 19th-century pioneer of California, who held British, Mexican, and finally American citizenship. Raised in Massachusetts in a maritime family, he came to the Mexican territory of Alta California as master of the ship Rover, and was a pioneer of Monterey, California, when it was the capital of the territory. He converted to Catholicism, became a Mexican citizen, married the daughter of the Mexican territorial governor, and acquired extensive land holdings in the area prior to the Mexican–American War.
Rancho El Sur was a 8,949.06-acre (36.22 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Monterey County, California on the Big Sur coast given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Juan Bautista Alvarado. The grant extended from the mouth of Little Sur River inland about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) over the coastal mountains and south along the coast past the mouth of the Big Sur River to Cooper's Point. In about 1892, the rancho land plus an additional 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of resale homestead land was divided into two major parcels. The southern 4,800 acres (1,900 ha) became the Molera Ranch, later the foundation of Andrew Molera State Park. The northern 7,100 acres (2,900 ha) form the present-day El Sur Ranch.
Rancho Bolsa del Potrero y Moro Cojo was a 6,916-acre (27.99 km2) Mexican land grant in the northern Salinas Valley, in present-day Monterey County, California. Tradition holds that Lame Moor refers to a lame, black (moor) horse found in the property.
Rancho Bolsa Nueva y Moro Cojo was a 30,901-acre (125.05 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Monterey County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to María Antonia Pico de Castro. Literally translated, the name means "new pocket and lame moor". In the plains of Argentina and Uruguay, "moro" is the color of a horse, a special gray-bluish shade. This name must certainly be of Spanish origin, so it is not unreasonable to suppose that this Spanish name of a place in California does not refer to a "moor" but to a lame horse. The name "pocket" refers to pockets of land surrounded by marshes. The grant extended from Moss Landing on the Monterey Bay inland to present day Prunedale, and south to Castroville.
The Old Coast Road is a dirt road that still exists in part and preceded the current Big Sur Coast Highway along the northern coast of Big Sur, California. It was initially a trail created by Rumsen and Esselen Native Americans to travel along the coast in present-day Monterey County, California. Soon after the Spanish arrived, Governor Teodoro Gonzalez granted land that included portions of the trail as Rancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito to Marcelino Escobar in 1835. Governor Juan Alvarado re-granted the land to Escobar the same year. The Rancho included land from Carmel to near Palo Colorado Canyon. José Castro gained possession of the land in about 1848. He improved the trail from Monterey to Palo Colorado Canyon as early as 1853. A hand-drawn map created c. 1853 accompanying the grant indicated a road or trail was already present along the coast.
Neponset is an unincorporated community in Monterey County, California. It is located along the Southern Pacific Railroad and California State Route 1 between Marina, California and Castroville, California, and 8.5 miles (14 km) northwest of Salinas, California, at an elevation of 23 feet.
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