Jack L. Debenedetti, Jr.: Brussels Sprouts and Artichoke
Growing on the North Coast
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Artichoke Growing on the North Coast
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Artichoke Growing on the North Coast
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Copyright Restrictions
PLEASE NOTE these interviews are provided for research
purposes only. All uses of these manuscripts are covered by
copyright agreement between the interviewees and the Regents of
the University of California. All the literary rights in these
manuscripts, including the right to publish, are reserved to the
University of California, Santa Cruz. No part of these manuscripts
may be quoted for publication without the permission of the
University Librarian of the University of California, Santa
Cruz.
This volume documents the history of these two specialty crops in
Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, and Santa
Cruz's north coast. The late Debenedetti's father, known as the
"Artichoke King,"
developed the local artichoke industry and was the first to introduce
this crop to the East
Coast market. The Debenedettis, large shipper/growers, farmed a
thousand coastal acres
from the 1880s until the 1970s.
Debenedetti provides an overview of coastal agriculture during a
half century, describing
the varieties of crops grown, characteristics of coastal soils, pest
control, capital costs, field
labor, the Bracero Program, and the history of Brussels sprout and
artichoke cultivation.
His narration also includes chapters on the decline of family
farming, the future of coastal
agricultural land and the increasing pressure on farmers from land
developers.