Artful artichokes

The Newark, Del.-based Pro­duce Mar­keting Asso­ci­a­tion, cit­ing USDA fig­ures, reports that con­sump­tion of arti­chokes has remained steady over recent years. U.S. con­sumers ate 1.7 pounds of arti­chokes per capita in 2006, 1.6 pounds in 2007 and 2008, then 1.5 pounds in 2009. That puts arti­chokes’ pop­u­lar­ity at the same level as cau­li­flower (1.6 pounds in 2008 and 2009) and spinach (1.6 pounds in 2008 and 2009).

Kori Tug­gle, mar­ket­ing man­ager for Ocean Mist Farms, based in Cas­tro­ville, Calif., says the arti­choke cat­e­gory is strong. “Con­sumers are as focused as ever on health­ful shop­ping and value. Low in calo­ries and fat-free, arti­chokes are an excel­lent source of fiber and vit­a­min C and a good source of folate, mag­ne­sium and potassium.”

She adds that Ocean Mist grows arti­chokes year round and peak sea­son is upon us. “March through mid-May is peak sea­son for the clas­sic green globe vari­ety in Cas­tro­ville,” she says. “The spring crop gen­er­ally starts peak­ing on the jumbo to large sizes in March through April. May is the peak for the foodie favorite size: the baby arti­choke. Due to new grow­ing prac­tices, this year will be one of our largest spring crops in terms of volume.”

Look­ing good

Oth­ers are also opti­mistic about the arti­choke category.

“Over­all things are look­ing good,” says Mishalin Mod­ena, mar­ket­ing man­ager for Grow­ers Express, LLC in Sali­nas, Calif. “Arti­chokes are one of the top five com­modi­ties for us to pro­mote in 2010.”

She says it helps that the spring arti­chokes look more attrac­tive than the “winter-kissed” or “frost-kissed” vari­eties. The cold weather ver­sion is fla­vor­ful but fea­tures an outer layer that has brown spots. “Con­sumers might think these don’t look right,” she says.

Henry Dill, sales man­ager for Sali­nas, Calif.-based Pacific Inter­na­tional Mar­ket­ing, is also look­ing for­ward to spring. The com­pany had a dis­ap­point­ing win­ter crop of the Desert Globe vari­ety, but Dill expects the spring Green Globe vari­ety to do bet­ter. “The cur­rent avail­abil­ity seems to be improv­ing each day,” he says.

Dou­glas McFar­land, mar­ket­ing direc­tor for Col­or­ful Har­vest based in Sali­nas, Calif., says there is room for growth in the arti­choke cat­e­gory. “I believe that while arti­choke pop­u­lar­ity is grow­ing by way of con­sumers learn­ing about cook­ing tech­niques from TV cook­ing shows, there is still a great deal of growth ahead of us.”

The com­pany, which spe­cial­izes in col­or­ful pro­duce such as orange cau­li­flower, rain­bow crunch car­rots and pur­ple broc­coli, has the added chal­lenge of explain­ing the pur­ple arti­choke to con­sumers. McFar­land says Col­or­ful Har­vest gets a boost from chefs who use the company’s arti­chokes in restau­rants, which gen­er­ates trial. “The biggest fac­tor with arti­chokes is ensur­ing that con­sumers know how to pre­pare them to have a won­der­ful eat­ing expe­ri­ence,” he says. Col­or­ful Har­vest also offers easy to pre­pare recipes on its website.

Arti­chokes are a mys­tery to many home cooks. “The most com­mon ques­tion we are asked at food shows is, ‘How do I pre­pare it?’” Dill says. He tells peo­ple to steam the arti­choke with olive oil and gar­lic. To help con­sumers learn more about cook­ing arti­chokes, Pacific Inter­na­tional has in-store demos, where the pre­sen­ters hand out recipe cards and fact sheets.

Dill says con­sumers are espe­cially inter­ested in the large arti­chokes, so part of the chal­lenge is to show peo­ple how to cook the smaller arti­chokes too. “We have vari­eties that start off with the big sizes, 12s, 15s, 18s, and once the plant starts to get to mid­sea­son you’re get­ting a larger range of sizes, the 30s, 36s, 48s. You can get a pretty sharp retail on a 30 or 36 size arti­choke as far as per item.” The num­bers refer to how many fit in a case, so the 12s are large and the 48s are small.

Grow­ers Express plans to con­duct in-store demos this year. The com­pany is still work­ing on the details, but Mod­ena says the recipes and the size arti­choke will vary by region. “We have cer­tain retail­ers in regions that say the 24s are gen­er­ally the most pop­u­lar. On the East Coast they use the smaller sizes more. The really lit­tle ones are eas­ier to chop and sauté.”

The com­pany is also con­sid­er­ing con­tests or other pro­mo­tions online, and pos­si­bly some social media activ­i­ties.
Tug­gle says there will be plenty of pro­mo­tional oppor­tu­ni­ties this year. Ocean Mist rec­om­mends that retail­ers tai­lor their mar­ket­ing efforts to home cooks with all lev­els of expertise.

“Ama­teur cooks are look­ing to learn the basics of how to prep and steam a fresh arti­choke. Mas­ters are look­ing for more chal­leng­ing ways to cook with fresh arti­chokes such as grilling or stuff­ing.”

Add mayo

Cross mer­chan­dis­ing helps too. Some stores dis­play jars of may­on­naise with the arti­chokes, to remind peo­ple they can whip up a creamy dip, or even steam the veg­etable and then eat the leaves with mayo. Stores also dis­play olive oil and other items in spaces beneath or near the artichokes.

“By cre­at­ing a des­ti­na­tion cat­e­gory with recipe cards and com­ple­men­tary items such as lemons and refrig­er­ated dress­ings for dips, retail­ers can teach shop­pers how to use arti­chokes and in the process, train them to become reg­u­lar arti­choke buy­ers,” Tug­gle says.

Another impor­tant dis­play detail is sig­nage, which McFar­land says should be “sim­ple, easy to under­stand, directly over the dis­play and if nec­es­sary con­sid­ers lan­guage and cul­ture needs.”