Located in the heart of Castroville, the self proclaimed "Artichoke Capital of the World," lies a leafy behemoth of green goodness. Behold, one of mankind's greatest achievements: the world's largest artichoke.
Now, I know what you're thinking, and no it's not a REAL artichoke. That's all besides the point here. What we have is giant, concrete replica of one of California's favorite cash crops, and it's more beautiful than you could even imagine.
The body is perfectly shaped, wonderfully spherical, with each floret meticulously crafted using the style and grace of a 16th century painter. The leaves are a shade of shiny green, smooth and radiating an emotion that will bring people back to their childhood happy place. In all, this artie is tall, photogenic and handsome, sorta like Artie Lang.
This masterpiece is smashed between a lovely Artichoke restaurant and a market, both of which are worth a stop.
The market sells— now hang with me on this one— Artichokes! Lots of varieties, and all at discount prices. The eatery, conveniently named the Giant Artichoke Restaurant is famous for their fried artichokes with ranch dressing, which tastes as glorious as it sounds and contains as much grease as you'd imagine.
On a side note, the town actually lives up to its moniker and holds court in the artichoke game. Castroville is home to an annual artichoke festival, has an artichoke on the local town seal and once named Marilyn Monroe as honorary artichoke queen when she came to town in 1947.
HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?
The first artichoke shoots were planted in Castroville in 1922 and the area's unique combination of rich soil, sun and fog made for ideal growing conditions. AS time went on, the choke business would eventually monopolize the town, thus giving birth to their "Artichoke capital of the world" claim to fame.
Enter Ray Bei, huckster and son of a local artichoke farmer. Seeing an opportunity to parlay the town’s most coveted crop into a cash cow of some kind, Bei began work on his roadside attraction idea.
Known as simply as The World's Largest Artichoke, the concrete and rebar creation was finished in 1963 and went live to much fanfare around the Country. Standing at 20 feet tall and 12 feet across, the artichoke continues to stand tall and proud between Bei's Restaurant and his delectable fruit stand.
