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Artichokes: Taking on the competition from California In the Holland Marsh, John and Kathryn Gorzo are proving that they can produce these tasty perennial thistles as well as, if not better than, the big guys from California's Monterey County by WENDY ADAMS There's a certain something about the mists of the Holland Marsh near Bradford, where John and Kathryn Gorzo farm, that encourages artichokes to grow their best. Similarly foggy conditions have given California's Monterey County recognition as the top artichoke producer in North America. The Gorzos are Ontario's first commercial growers of these thistle perennials from the sunflower family with a Mediterranean ancestry. While they only planted eight acres this year, compared to the 55,000 acres cultivated annually by Ocean Mist Farms of Castroville, Cal., they are already receiving rave reviews from their test marketings. "We've had people from Italian backgrounds -- Sicilians who have eaten artichokes ever since they were little kids -- try them and they say these are the best artichokes they've ever tasted," Gorzo says. Gorzo grew a one-acre plot as an experiment in 2003. The University of Guelph had conducted successful experiments in the area and was looking for someone to try it on a commercial scale "so I opened my big mouth," Gorzo says. A local newspaper printed his offer, "so I guess I had to do it," he laughs. He grew the plants from seed in his greenhouse and transplanted them into the field in three stages, beginning in June. Most of his early harvest was cut at a medium size. Gorzo says he anticipated they wouldn't get any larger after talking to a wholesaler who told him that Ontario artichokes open early and never get bigger than a certain size. "He kind of got me worried," Gorzo admits. "The quality and taste was fine, it was just that they didn't get bigger...because I didn't let them." Gorzo had broken even financially after the second cutting, so with the third planting he thought, "I'm going to just leave those and let them grow and see what happens. They grew huge!" Gorzo went to California last February to do some research. He took pictures of these "huge" plants and showed them to an artichoke grower there. "He looked at them and he said; 'You know what? You've got it made. No one can touch that quality at that time of year (July and August).' So I knew right then and there," says Gorzo, "that we have the potential to create an industry to ship artichokes right across North America." There are other Canadian growers on Vancouver Island and also in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. And there are some growers in Texas. But, currently, California-based Ocean Mist has a tight hold on the North American market, shipping 81 million of the spiky buds annually. Gorzo found out two things about marketing artichokes when he was in California. First, top quality artichokes aren't shipped to Toronto -- wholesalers at The Food Terminal are only offered number 2 grade artichokes at best. Second, other independent growers told him that Ocean Mist will "go out of its way to keep people from getting into the business." Still, he thinks that he has a good chance to compete. "I'm in a different boat," he says. "My season is in mid-summer and it is too hot there (in California) to produce properly." The ideal California harvesting season is early winter to spring and again in the fall, starting in late September. Ocean Mist grows year round because it has two main farms in different areas of California. Castroville, the more northerly farm, is for summer growing and Coachella Valley is for winter artichokes. At the Marsh, Gorzo harvests from the second week of July through to the first heavy frost. Local loyalty is not a concern for Gorzo. He believes customers like the smaller chains and specialty markets will support Ontario growers "as long as they know the product is good and it's available. I'm not worried about that part." It's the three main chains -- National Grocers, Sobeys and Atlantic &Pacific -- that Gorzo says can offer consumers rock-bottom prices. "It doesn't matter what the quality is. As long as they're advertising it, people are going to go there. Then you have to drop your price, even though you may have superior quality compared to California." The task at hand now is for Gorzo to get out to trade shows like the Produce Marketing Association's annual convention, where anybody that deals in produce will go. "Now we just need to get the word out there and let everybody know that artichokes are available -- and we're talking good quality artichokes the first two weeks of July right through until October." Gorzo's trip to California really paid off as his 2004 production is much higher than anticipated. The plants produced almost twice as many buds -- eight to 10 -- compared to five or six in 2003. He let some buds go to flower and sold them at the flower auction for top dollar. Growing artichokes from seed requires skills. Because artichokes are perennials, Gorzo had to "trick" the transplants he grew into thinking they went through a winter. "The rule of thumb is 10 days at 10 C with only 10 hours of daylight." Gorzo says it got difficult later in May trying to maintain these conditions in the greenhouse. He will continue to grow from seed each year because he figures artichokes won't survive an Ontario winter. Gorzo is growing the Imperial Star variety he bought from the University of California. Ocean Mist has its own proprietary varieties. At this stage, the Gorzos haven't made a large financial investment because there is no need for the packing conveyors or sizing and cooling equipment that a large-scale producer would use. Gorzo's wife, Kathryn, takes the artichokes to the farmers' market at the Square One shopping mall in Mississauga where she's been told; "I haven't seen artichokes of this quality since I was back in France." Harvesting artichokes is labour-intensive because of the awkwardness of the plant, which grows from three to five feet tall and sends out side shoots giving the plant a six-foot diameter. The buds in the centre can't be reached with a machine. This doesn't bother the Gorzos, who already have labour at hand. "Our operation is focused on bunch products -- bunch carrots, bunch parsley root -- so most of what we do is hand-harvested anyway. We have Mexican and Jamaican offshore workers that are up every year," says Gorzo. "They're the ones that do the harvesting for us. I and my wife do most the packing so we can make sure the quality and sizing is right for the first few years, until our business gets established." As long as Gorzo markets as an individual grower, Foodland Ontario won't help with marketing. His three- to five-year plan is to set up a marketing co-operative "just like Ocean Mist has. Have the growers develop the plants, produce the plants, develop the breed and varieties that will best suit our conditions here and what customers want. Set up one plant to pack it and ship it and market it across North America," he says. "To do it right, you don't want to have a handful of little packing facilities. Then you're going out there trying to market stuff piecemeal. Duplicating that three or four times doesn't make any sense." BF © copyright 2005AgMedia Inc.. top back