“When the highwayman holds his gun to your head, you turn your valuables over to him. You 'consent' alright, but you do so because you cannot help yourself, because you are compelled by his gun.” »» Alexander Berkman

The World’s Largest Artichoke - Castroville, CA

Posted on October 15, 2007
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Z and I went artichoke hunting on Saturday morning. But we weren’t just hunting any ol’ artichoke… We were hunting the World’s Largest Artichoke! And we found it in Castroville, CA outside the Giant Artichoke Family Restaurant.

I’m a big fan of cheesy tourist trap attractions such as this, but must say this one was rather disappointing. First of all, it’s simply not that large. Sure, at 20 feet tall it’s bigger than the average artichoke you’d find at your local grocery store, but it doesn’t compare to such things as the World’s Largest Hammer in Eureka, CA which we visited on our last major road trip. It’s also not an entire artichoke, but the rather the back half appears to be absorbed in the building, though when exploring inside there is no artichoke apparent. The greatest disappointment, though, was the lack of information about the artichoke itself. All we could find was a small paper taped to the produce stand’s counter with a couple of sentences of history.

I ate an artichoke omelet (which was excellent) and Z had the artichoke scramble for breakfast. Although the food was very good the service was mediocre at best and the prices were exceedingly high for the quantity and quality of food provided.

Thrilling photographs of the World’s Largest Artichoke (and the neighboring produce stand) can be seen here.

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