Family fun, artichoke art and a centerfold model converge at the annual Artichoke Festival.

The 59th annual Castroville Artichoke Food & Wine Festival attracted an estimated 6,000 people for two days to the Monterey County Fair & Event Center over the weekend from June 1-3.

The crowd  enjoyed a sunny Sunday afternoon celebrating California’s official state vegetable. Local band Chicano Allstars took the main stage, playing a mixture of blues to cumbia, while a lesson on forming the perfect spice rub was held at the chef demo stage and children performed improvised puppet shows nearby at the family-friendly event.

All those activities aside, the festival remains focused on artichokes.

Artichoke aficionados and casual consumers alike could fulfill cravings and curiosity at the food court where vendors offered classics like deep fried artichoke hearts to more obscure options like artichoke burritos.

Katy Yates, a UC Santa Cruz student accompanied by two friends, enjoyed the festival’s artichoke offerings.

“It’s my first time here, I’m a semi-fan of artichokes,” Yates says. “Out of all the ways I’ve eaten artichoke today, I like the grilled best for their smoky flavor.”

Cheesecake Dreamations of Marina catered to sweet tooths with their artichoke cheesecake bites with bits of steamed artichoke in the filling and pieces of fried artichoke to top it off.

Blue Aces Bake Shoppe also incorporated the ingredient into sugary treats. The Salinas bakery’s festival offerings included pistachio artichoke cake pops, artichoke cinnamon danishes, and balsamic artichoke macaroons.

The admiration for artichokes was showcased in non-edible ways as well with T-shirts featuring the vegetable and henna-tattoo artichoke designs on sale.

Perhaps the most impressive testaments to the artichoke, however, were found in the Agro Art competition. The vegetable-based sculptures included a seal with a body—save for its flippers, which were made of cactus pads—comprised entirely of artichoke leaves and paired with a ribbon reading “Seal of Approval.” There was a birthday cake consisting of 'chokes and cauliflower, and a large Snoopy figure featuring the dog, his companion, Woodstock, and his doghouse almost entirely made of artichoke leaves painted in different colors.  

From her booth across the Agro Art section, Joanne Gallaher reflects on her own close relationship with the festival through art. Gallaher served as a model for a centerfold-style poster depicting her nude body amid a pile of artichokes that was used for the 1988 festival.

The image, knowns as the “Artichoke Woman” poster, was a subtle tribute to Marilyn Monroe, the festival’s first Artichoke Queen who would later appear in a Playboy centerfold covered in roses. The late photographer Sue Bennett, who met Gallaher during an all-artichoke dinner in 1977, came up with the concept after the two took several visits to the festival.

“This is my first time going to the festival in its Monterey location,” Gallaher says. “There seems to be more variety in the non-artichoke foods, but the festival still sticks to its roots in celebrating the artichoke.”