Brussels Sprouts' Renaissance Alive in Bay Area

It's like a scene from a childhood nightmare. There are vast fields of Brussels sprouts, with workers tossing plants bearing dozens of them onto a harvesting machine. Little green balls pile up in bins by the thousands.

November is peak harvest season from Half Moon Bay to Watsonville, and the sprouts are in high demand. A remarkable transformation has occurred on this stretch of coast, considered ground zero for U.S. production of the vegetable: The sulfurous orbs that were once the bane of children's dinner plates have evolved into a prized fall treat.

The value of the local crop has skyrocketed in the past decade based in part, growers and distributors say, on a steady rise in the appetite for fresh Brussels sprouts. The pungent little cabbage is riding a wave of popularity thanks to culinary creativity, changing consumer habits and scientific research.

Scientific breeding

Half Moon Bay farmers John Giusti and David Lea once sold about 80 percent of their sprouts to the frozen market. But in the past decade the ratio has flipped, and they now sell that much or more of their crop fresh. Most of the sprouts are packed in Salinas and trucked east. The rest make their way to Bay Area grocery stores, farmers markets and restaurants.

"It's almost like a designer vegetable now, where they're very desirable," said Lea, who farms about 150 acres of sprouts. "Years ago, when we told people we were growing Brussels sprouts, people would say, 'Oh, no, they're so bitter!' "

Local farmers say the Brussels sprouts renaissance began about 20 years ago and more than 5,000 miles away. Scientists at agribusiness giant Syngenta's labs in the Netherlands began breeding different varieties in an attempt to mellow out the sprouts' acrid taste.

The program focused on compounds known as glucosinolates, said Peter van der Toorn, Syngenta's director of vegetable breeding. The substance is responsible for the bitterness of the sprouts but has also been studied for its possible role in preventing certain types of cancer.

"We have tried to design combinations of glucosinolates that give the health benefits of eating these vegetables while improving the taste," said Van der Toorn, adding the new varieties also have higher sugar levels.

Chefs picked up on the milder flavor and began experimenting with new preparations. Diners who had recoiled from the stench of mushy, overboiled sprouts as children were pleasantly surprised. TV food shows and culinary magazines began featuring innovative recipes.

Ideal conditions

Brussels sprouts farmers have also benefited from the culinary movement toward local, seasonal food. The vegetable has become a fall and winter staple in Bay Area restaurants.

Park Tavern in San Francisco serves Brussels sprout chips as an appetizer. Sam's Chowder House in Half Moon Bay roasts them with bacon and butter. The chefs at Hay Market in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood, where the menu changes daily, improvised several recipes last year.

"The big hit, oddly enough, was whipped potatoes with toasted Brussels sprouts," said executive chef Joe Cirone, who uses only California sprouts, eschewing the Mexican-grown sprouts that are available in the spring and summer.

Bocanova in Oakland's Jack London Square goes through as many as 20 to 30 pounds a day, according to executive chef John Ledbetter.

"I have about five side dishes on the menu," Ledbetter said, "and I sell Brussels sprouts more than anything else."

That appetite for fresh sprouts, along with the farmers' increased cost of doing business, helps explain crop reports showing the value of sprouts grown in San Mateo County has nearly doubled to $8.9 million since 2003 despite a slight drop in the number of acres being farmed.

The cool, foggy coast south of San Francisco provides ideal growing conditions. More than 90 percent of Brussels sprouts grown in the United States come from California, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and most of the Golden State's sprouts are harvested in San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.

Half Moon Bay farmer Mike Iacopi, who sells Giuti and Lea's sprouts at local farmers markets, said the salt air gives the vegetables character.

"At night you get that salty dew," Iacopi said, "and it gets into the plant, it gets into the soil, it adds flavor."

Whether it's the salty air or her mother's persistence, 5-year-old Lorenne Langmade has bought into the Brussels sprouts phenomenon.

"I like it when my dad grills them," said Lorenne while shopping with her mother at Whole Foods Market in San Mateo.

Tera Langmade said her daughter's attitude is much better than her own as a child. She regarded them simply as gross. But when she came across sprouts in a grocery store a few years ago, she gave them another try.

"I'm still not fond of them if they're not cooked right," said Langmade, a vegetarian. "It's all about the cooking with a lot of vegetables."

Bay Area's Business Climate is Less Friendly to Startups than Other Parts of California, Says Study

Relatively expensive housing, coupled with the high cost of living and doing business in the Bay Area, has made the nine-county region less hospitable to new companies than other big urban centers in California, according to a study released Thursday that urges improvements in what it describes as this area's burdensome regulatory climate.

"You have to ease the regulations that people face when they want to launch a new venture," said Jon Haveman, chief economist with the Bay Area Council's Economic Institute, which produced the report. "If somebody is trying to start a small business and spend a small fortune on a new home, they will probably start that business elsewhere."

The Bay Area lags major rivals such as Los Angeles and San Diego in jobs created by startup companies, the study determined.

The strengths of the region are reflected in household income and other factors, the report stated. The region has increasingly specialized in high-value industries such as professional, scientific and technical services, along with information services and products.

"This not only supports new company formation locally, but also helps attract innovative young companies from elsewhere in the country and around the world to locate here," the report stated.

"Even though there are high costs in the Bay Area, this region still has a reputation for new business formations," added Scott Anderson, chief economist with San Francisco-based Bank of the West. "You have the visibility of the tech industry. A lot of venture capitalists. Silicon Valley is the heart of the U.S. technology sector."

The report also determined that the migration of businesses into -- or the defection from -- the Bay Area has relatively little impact on the region's job market.

On average, only 2.3 percent of new jobs created in the Bay Area in a given year is the result of companies that came from other parts of California, other states or other countries. Similarly, only 3.7 percent of the jobs that vanish in a year are the result of firms defecting from the Bay Area.

Instead, 55 percent of the new jobs created in the Bay Area every year result from companies that were already located in the Bay Area. And 66 percent of the job losses in a typical year come from companies that were already operating in the nine-county region.

"Instead of spending money on going to other states or countries, local leaders should spend that money to make the environment more hospitable to companies that are already here, to create a better atmosphere for the formation of startups and the survival and retention of new companies."

Bay Area Billionaires Join Giving Pledge

Mansions, yachts, personal jets - even private islands - can lose their charms over time.

Some billionaires seek cachet a different way: eradicating disease, bolstering public education, endowing museums and universities, preserving the environment, combatting poverty.

This week, that philosophy inspired another 11 super-wealthy American families, including three from the Bay Area, to commit to the Giving Pledge, a promise to give away at least half their fortunes to philanthropy or charity.

Started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates two years ago, the pledge now has collected John Hancocks from 92 American families, including such bold-faced names as Mark Zuckerberg, George Lucas, Ted Turner, Paul Allen, Michael Bloomberg and Larry Ellison.

In the Bay Area, the newest class of pledge-signers included three families who made fortunes co-founding technology companies: Intel's Gordon Moore and his wife, Betty; Netflix's Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin; and Symphony Technology's Romesh Wadhwani and his wife, Kathleen.

"In 2001 we devoted half of our wealth to create a foundation that would take risks in order to innovate and achieve meaningful results," the Moores wrote in a statement. "Nearly 12 years later we remain committed to creating positive outcomes for future generations, and we're focused on areas where we believe that we can make a difference: environmental conservation, patient care and science. We are pleased to be a part of the Giving Pledge not only because we are able to commit these funds, but because we believe they can lead to real learning and measurable change."

Gordon Moore made the Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth of $4.9 billion.

Hastings and Quillin have focused their philanthropy on school reform. He served as president of the California Board of Education and advocates for charter schools.

"It's an honor to be able to try to help our community, our country and our planet through our philanthropy," they said in a statement. "We are thrilled to join with other fortunate people to pledge a majority of our assets to be invested in others. We hope through this community that we can learn as we go, and do our best to make a positive difference for many."

Wadhwani, who co-founded the Palo Alto private-equity firm Symphony Technology Group in 2002, has a charitable mission "to accelerate economic development in India and other emerging economies by creating jobs and developing skills," he said in a statement. Forbes lists his net worth as $2 billion.

Beyond generating more money for charities, the pledge aims to provoke national discussions about giving.

Pledge signers meet yearly to thrash out their philanthropic approaches and experiences. Those discussions have spurred much more collaboration among the group, Gates told the Wall Street Journal.

"Everybody is evolving in their giving," he said.

The other new pledge signatories and their companies and causes are Manoj Bhargava (5-hour Energy, Indian poverty); Charles Bronfman (Seagram Co., Birthright Israel); Dan and Jennifer Gilbert (Quicken, children's health); Peter Lewis (Progressive Insurance, marijuana legalization); Jonathan Nelson (Providence Equity, Brown University); Jorge and Darlene Perez (The Related Group, Miami Art Museum); Claire and Leonard Tow (New Century Holdings, health care); Albert Lee Ueltschi (FlightSafety International, Third-World blindness).

They join an exclusive group ranging in age from 28 to 97.

The Bay Area is amply represented among the group, with at least 16 families (including the three new signers) with strong local ties, including Zuckerberg, Ellison and Lucas, as well as Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz.

Other local signers include venture capitalists John and Ann Doerr and Vinod and Neeru Khosla; asset manager Tom Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor; World Savings founder Bernard Osher and his wife, Barbro; Banker Herb Sandler and his late wife, Marion; and Business Wire founder Lorry Lokey.

While they no longer live here, eBay's Jeff Skoll and Pierre and Pam Omidyar all took the pledge, as did Elon Musk of Tesla and PayPal.

"This new group brings extensive business and philanthropic experience that will enrich the conversation about how to make philanthropy as impactful as possible," Gates said in a statement. "Their thoughtfulness and deep commitment to philanthropy are an inspiration to me, and I'm sure to many others as well."