Artichokes : Competition is keen in California’s artichoke industry as growers argue over whether a green or a purple vegetable is best.

As dusk descends upon this expansive coastal valley, refrigerated trucks begin arriving at the Jordan Brothers Ranch to accept the day’s recently concluded harvest.

For the past decade, this has been a fairly standard routine as crates bulging with all the season’s traditional crops--lettuce, celery, peppers, cauliflower--are quickly loaded onto the trailers.

But in the past few months, things have taken on a decidedly different tone as this quiet farming area, an hour’s drive north of Santa Barbara, has become the front line in the California artichoke war.

The contest pits the long-entrenched Establishment, the Castroville green, against the feisty and flashy Lompoc purple.

At the heart of the issue is a new strain of thistle: a bit more round and tinted with purple.

The coloration alone is enough to generate attention in the normally conservative produce industry. And, predictably, this contemporary-looking vegetable has brought notoriety, some controversy and even a touch of scorn for this family-owned firm.

“There’s different-colored corn and peppers on the market. So, why not different-colored artichokes?” asks Steve Jordan, a self-proclaimed “artichoke evangelist,” dedicated to the cause of purple.

However, other factors surround this latest agricultural innovation. For starters, there are the Castroville-based green artichoke growers who look at the Jordans as interlopers with a suspect, funny-colored “choke,” the affectionate term used by fans of this sturdy-looking vegetable.

For instance, the Jordans’ pastel-splashed artichokes not only look different from the all-green variety, but they’re coming to market at the “wrong” time.

Normally, the availability of the green multileaved member of the thistle family is sporadic, limited mostly to eight weeks beginning in mid-March and then again, briefly, in the fall. Intermittent supplies do filter through produce channels throughout the year, but size is down and bruising from frost may be apparent.

The Jordans’ purple-tinted artichoke, on the other hand, can withstand different climates and grow steadily all year long.

When in peak season, the greens are harvested in and around the cool, misty clime of Castroville, where virtually all of the nation’s supply originates.

Yet, as the fleet of idling trucks demonstrates, one of the most seasonally sensitive vegetables will now be dependably available year round from an area 180 miles south of Castroville.

This type of dramatic success is raising concerns at the California Artichoke Advisory Board, a Castroville-based growers trade group, and is also creating some resistance among supermarket produce buyers.

At times lampooned as just so many leaves in search of something edible, artichokes are in fact a major crop in Italy, where more than 136,000 acres are under cultivation. The vegetable is also grown extensively in France, Spain and Argentina.

In the United States, though, the football-shaped vegetables are little known outside of the major metropolitan areas. Annual consumption, at considerably less than one pound per person, is negligible. What’s more, last year’s crop totaled less than 54,000 tons--nothing more than leftovers in contrast to some other produce counter staples.

Yet, artichokes appeal to this state’s farmers because they are lucrative. Retail prices, in the off-season, have reached as high as $2.49 each.

As such, the current system, in place since the 1920s, has served the green-artichoke growers well. But that’s all in the process of changing, especially since Rusty Jordan developed a seed from which the plants could be reliably grown each year.

Granted, growing plant from seed would appear to be elementary, at best. Furthermore, a tiny spore is little to fuss over.

However, artichokes have resisted seed cultivation for decades because the resulting vegetables can be wildly different and, in some cases, inedible.

The seeds’ unreliability forced large-scale commercial efforts to, in essence, reuse the same plants from one year to the next. After each year’s harvest, the growers unearth the artichoke roots, break the system into several sections and then replant the parts individually.

Over the last several years, the Jordans incorporated previous research into their own and were able to produce a hearty, reliable artichoke seed.

They now can just plow their plants under after harvest and replant with seed shortly thereafter. The labor savings alone are enough for the brothers to celebrate, but the seed-borne plants generate 50% more artichokes than its root-stock counterpart.

The Jordans also claim to have fewer problems with fungus or insects and thus need a lesser amount of agricultural chemicals.

“I started working on this in 1983 and was the only guy dumb enough to keep at it for three years. A couple of other growers must have thought we are successful because now they’re trying to emulate us,” said Rusty Jordan, 42, a bear-size man who represents his family’s fourth generation of farmers. “The reason I even started this project was because, at the time, we were in the last big agricultural recession and were looking for something different to grow.”

Jordan’s Castroville-based colleagues would have much preferred that he’d stumbled onto something other than artichokes. The sentiment is particularly true now as, in recent weeks, the Jordans have produced almost all of the nation’s artichokes.

‘Don’t Look Right’

As for the soft purple hue at the base of the vegetable’s leaves, Rusty Jordan says there are 100 major varieties of the plant and that his cross-bred strain produces the unusual color. It is this purple streaking, though, that has caused some supermarkets to reject the vegetable as unaesthetic.

“Since these artichokes are in part purple, some buyers say ‘they don’t look right’ and so they don’t buy them,” said Steve Jordan. “And sometimes when they do make it to the store, the artichokes just sit on the shelves. But when people eat them for the first time, then everything’s OK. It’s just that the initial purchase is a tough one, like any new product.”

In fact, earlier this year the Jordans felt forced to take out large advertisements in a produce industry trade publication to acknowledge the different color, but to also boast of the strain’s greater number of edible leaves, its bigger heart or core and the lack of thorns. The Jordan artichoke, marketed as Big Heart, is also somewhat different in shape from its competition--more like an apple than a football.

“We had to resort to the ads,” Steve Jordan said, “in order to tell the supermarkets that we’re serious about this. We are not only here today, but will be in future.”

The commitment is reflected by the 920 acres of artichokes the Jordan brothers have under cultivation, a sizable figure considering that the entire state has only 11,182 acres. Another aspect of the seed’s success is that the plants have become heat-tolerant and a portion of the Jordan acreage is in Arizona, a further break from tradition.

All these changes are not sitting well with the California Artichoke Advisory Board in Castroville.

While acknowledging that a reliable seed would be a boon to the industry, a board spokeswoman said some of the seed-grown artichokes have been substandard.

“Our absolutely biggest concern is the edibility of these (seed-grown) artichokes,” said Pat Hopper, the advisory board’s manager. “If a consumer gets one that tastes bad, then they’re not going to go back and buy another one. That’s especially true of a first-time buyer. Any out there now that taste poorly will harm us all.”

The board has been closely monitoring the seed programs and subsequent sales. As a result, Hopper said some of those found in retail channels have an unpleasant ammonia-like taste and are generally different in flavor from one another. None of the problem artichokes, though, were said to be from the Jordan fields.

“I don’t believe that any I have come across from Steve’s operation tasted bad,” Hopper said, indicating that maybe two other, smaller seed operations were more likely sources.

Quality was not the only issue raised by the advisory board. There are also fears that an additional wave of artichokes may depress prices.

Effect on Prices

“I believe this program will affect prices,” Hopper said. “In the spring, with our peak season, prices go down when supplies are up. I don’t believe we have enough increased demand to absorb an additional 10,000 to 15,000 (23-pound) cases a week, which I’m sure this new (Jordan) acreage can produce.”

The advisory board is not the only party with a needle or two for the Jordans. Several Castroville-area growers have launched an ad campaign of their own, with even more space devoted to the cause in the produce trade press.

One ad proclaims that “Castroville artichokes are grown the olde-fashioned (sic) way for quality, taste, consistency, shelf-life and appearance.”

Steve Jordan is not buying the greens’ “taste great” argument.

“Our artichokes taste better, but, yes, it does taste slightly different,” he said. “But did you ever notice that strawberries these days look real pretty, but they taste like hell. Well, we wanted to make sure that we didn’t breed into our artichokes any lousy taste.”

In a faint peace-making gesture, Steve Jordan added that the whole point of getting into the artichoke business was to have the vegetable available in the off-season and not to create any mutually destructive glut.

“With the seeds, you can design when to plant and then design when to harvest and when it’s (advantageous) to harvest,” he said.

As for the flavor issue, a sampling of Jordan artichokes produced a subtle, almond or grassy flavor. If anything, the artichokes were even more delicate than the green-globe variety produced in the Castroville area.

The flavor differential has not deterred Vons Grocery Co. or Safeway Stores Inc. from placing them in area produce counters.

Dick Spezzano, Vons vice president for produce, said he was happy to have quality (purple) artichokes during the summer months when he was faced with slim pickings from Castroville or nothing.

But before making any commitments, Spezzano had several of his associates taste the new variety. All reported that they liked the purple artichokes, but did detect some flavor differences.

“It’s a unique little item,” he said. “We are calling them purple summertime artichokes, and our shoppers must like them because they are making repeat purchases. And Vons’ summer sales of artichokes have never been better.”

Spezzano said about 90% of Vons’ 190 stores offer the tinted artichokes, which are currently selling for 79 cents each. Price does not seem to deter buyers who favor dipping the smooth green (or purple) leaves in melted butter or mayonnaise.

“Artichoke lovers are adamant about (the vegetable). And when they want artichokes, they don’t really care about the price, they’re just concerned about getting the product,” he said.

Spezzano’s perspective is good news for the Jordans but only exacerbates the increasing purple versus green competition, because he plans to restock the Castroville variety once its limited fall harvest is under way.

For now, the Jordans will have to be content matching wits, color and marketing with a larger, better-financed foe.

And there’s sure to be other skirmishes on the horizon. Hopper, of the advisory board, says several Castroville-area growers have funded an intensive study to develop their own little seeds.