It was the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s desire to create productive acreage out of barren desert that brought the first dates to the Coachella Valley about 100 years ago.
Choke Hold
It arrived in California from Italy fewer than 100 years ago. Without it, the Golden State’s cuisine wouldn’t be the same
The desert’s multiseasonal bumper crop, artichokes — aka “California’s official vegetable”— stands firm, a prickly green carpet in full flourish.