California's Former 'Broccoli Capital' Is Now A Wine‑country Hub With Authentic Cuisine, Trails, And Parks

Depending on your tolerance for cruciferous vegetables, the "Broccoli Capital of the World" is either going to make your eyes widen with delight or your lips curl in disgust. But though the moniker is no more, the place and its color-coded name remains: Greenfield, California. But now instead of cultivating broccoli, Greenfield has turned its attention to that most drinkable of alcoholic fruits, grapes. In fact, Greenfield is something of an overlooked, undervalued wine hub across a very wine-full Californian landscape, one with a good amount of outdoor activities to do besides sit near vineyards and sip.

Though the dates are unclear, it makes sense that Greenfield adopted the title "Broccoli Capital of the World" from the 1950s to 1970s, when California became the U.S.' number-one producer of everyone's most marginally-enjoyed bushy-headed vegetable, right above cauliflower. The broccoli-based claim to fame came from Monterey County, precisely where Greenfield is located — inland from the coast about 90 minutes south of San Jose. In fact, 90% of the U.S.' broccoli still comes from California, a state now replete with wine country, like the famous (and very dog-walkable) Sonoma County north of San Francisco. As California's very lucky agricultural story goes, the state's climate makes it ideal for growing lots of different crops.

Nowadays, visitors to Greenfield can appreciate such facts while enjoying the literal and proverbial fruits of Californian weather first-hand. Besides paying visits to the area's numerous wineries, like Scheid Vineyards and Wrath Wines, there's top-tier outdoor hiking throughout the area's gorgeous, green, and sometimes rugged hills via the Arroyo Seco Trailhead, and a densely-packed strip of local eateries along El Camino Real, most of which offer authentic Mexican cuisine. 

Greenfield's many wineries span north through neighboring Soledad and its adjacent River Road. Any winery along this stretch sits within viewing distance of the soft, scalloped mountains to the west and out across row after row of vines. This view alone is the perfect reminder of the richness of California's unique climate. It also might give you a new appreciation of broccoli, who knows?

But while Greenfield and its surroundings are full of vineyards, not all of them have tasting rooms. Wrath Wines, which we already mentioned, is a good sit-down choice not only because of the cool name, but for the closeness to the mountains, the Spanish mission-influenced central building, and the old ranch grounds around it. They have a variety of wines, but focus on chardonnay and pinot noir. Scheid Vineyards is another good choice. Closer to central Greenfield, they've got daily wine flight tastings and even kid-friendly outdoor spaces with games like bocce ball.   

In town along El Camino Real, you can pair your winery visit with culinary options that skew strongly Mexican thanks to generations of Mexican-Americans living here who really know how to cook. Out of the many authentic restaurants in Greenfield, the unassuming El Tamalso Y Mas Bakery stands out for its high rating (4.7 on Google), reasonable prices, and home-style dishes. Stop in for a very casual and tasty classic Mexican meal, and leave with some traditional Mexican breads and baked goods. 

Greenfield's in an interesting geographical location, one that not only helps explain its proflieration of wineries but also its access to natural spaces. Right along Route 101, Greenfield sits on the eastern side of a wide-open, wild expanse of mountains without a single, continuous road to cross between it and the old Route 1 along the coast. Route 1 is the historic Big Sur, which itself is a winding drive full of dramatic views and challenging trails like those of the Ventana Wilderness almost directly west from Greenfield but 90 minutes away by car.  

All such outdoors goodness, and more, is accessible from Greenfield and easily built into your trip to its wineries and eateries. Many of Greenfield's closest hiking options are packed into a small pocket reachable from Arroyo Seco Road. The Arroyo Seco Ridge Trail is the shortest and arugably easiest of these, at about 4 miles long, but has plenty of ups and downs along the scrabbly, green-tufted, softly-rounded mountaintops. The much longer and more difficult 14-mile Santa Lucia and Indians Road Loop takes you along steeper trails, down into creeks, and up towards peaks. 

But if you're down for an easier time, then just stick around one of Greenfield's numerous, tiny parks. Oak Park is the biggest of these along the eastern edge of town, and has a good-sized kid's jungle gym. Vintage Park closer to downtown is much the same, but on a smaller scale. All that green will certainly whet your appetite for the former Broccoli Capital of the World. And when you're done, you can even go glamping at the weird, Big Sur-adjacent bird's nest glampground, Treebones, about 90 minutes away.