Well it wasn't really fair for me to answer, I grew up in California and when we were first married and moved to Irvine, in Orange County, it was still mostly farm fields and one of George's favorite things was stuffed globe artichokes so we always looked forward to them and Asparagus being in season.
We just spent five days touring the Salinas Valley fields where most of the produce that we sell is grown.
It was a work thing, with wives. Very informative.
Loved Monterrey...except for the weather. Cold and wet every day we spent there.
The only time we saw the sun s when we spent the day in Carmel.
I got off the tour bus at the first field we visited holding a Bloody Mary, then realized that I was standing in the middle of hundreds of acres of celery...serendipity!
P.S The company that owned those fields bought us all dinner that night (amazing restaurant in Monterrey) and challenged the Executive Chef with including their artichokes in as many of the dishes as possible.
The artichoke and parmigiano-reggiano risotto was amazing, and so where the grilled baby artichokes with extra virgin olive oil and lemon.
