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In the first half of the last century, the San Luca Artichoke was one of the main crops grown on the hillsides south of Bologna. Violet artichokes are also very common in the Romagna area, but their cultivation in the clayey soil of the Bolognese hills gives the San Luca Artichokes a fresh, herbaceous flavor, with notes of licorice root. The older generations remember how, thanks to these characteristics, the variety was once appreciated and known across the region, representing a significant source of pride—and income—for the local growers. With the depopulation of the countryside in the 1970s, this variety also began to be abandoned. These days, the farms that used to be home to the most productive artichoke fields have been turned into luxury residences with aesthetic rather than functional gardens.
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