In New Mexico the term green chile refers to the Hatch variety. Poblanos et al are something different. A green chile cheese burger has a green chile not a poblano.
Ohio grows the most paw paws, about three times as much as the nearest other state, WV. I just found a map not a list but looks like about 50%.
I thought most potatoes came from Idaho. Apparently only about a third of them do.
Michigan iirc is no 2 in crop diversity
Michigan/ Oceania county is the top asparagus producer in the US.
This is not a crop, but since it’s interesting I’ll mention that venus flytraps only grow in a small part of North Carolina.
90% of marionberries are grown in Oregon.
NPR just aired this story about Illinois and pumpkins. Per the story, “According to the USDA, Illinois harvests more pumpkins than twice the next five states combined.” I don’t know if that meets the 90% threshold, though.
https://www.npr.org/2025/09/27/nx-s1-5552717/how-did-illinois-become-the-great-pumpkin-state
I was just thinking about that, and about other fruits and vegetables that aren’t widely available in stores (usually because they don’t travel well). Ground cherries were another one I thought of, but it looks like they’re widespread enough that no state could dominate.
If we’re going to go with regional varieties, there are also Walla Walla (Washington) and Vidalia (Georgia) onions. Nor can you just get seeds and grow them wherever you want: Their characteristic bland flavor is due, in part, to the local soils (which, IIRC, are very low in sulfur).
I came to this thread to mention Illinois and pumpkins. Outside of Peoria there’s a pumpkin cannery, and fields of pumpkins as far as the eye can see.
I haven’t been able to find definitive numbers, but I’m pretty sure that most of the wild rice in the U.S. comes from Minnesota. It’s also grown in California, but I don’t think nearly as much.
If we’re going with non-food crops - Lake Placid, FL is essentially the sole source of Caladium bulbs in the world (not just the US)
California also produces 99 percent of America’s pomegranates.
No. They produce about a third of the crop in the US.
Garlic immediately brings the town of Gilroy to mind. They call themselves the garlic capital of the world.
However they note here
Over 50% of America’s garlic is now grown in the area around Gilroy and 90% of the country’s garlic harvest is processed here.
The remaining garlic might still be Californian, which would make sense for processing. But there is no doubt, for a town of 60,000, Gilroy is something special in garlic production.
Most US consumed garlic is apparently from China.
Whereas Castroville, the “Artichoke Center of the World,” produces about 75 percent of America’s artichokes. (Sadly, the long-running Artichoke Festival went belly-up this year.)
Maine produces only about 20% of all blueberries grown in the US, but well over 90% (possibly more than 99%) of so-called “wild blueberries,” which despite their name are actually cultivated. The wild blueberry or lowbush blueberry (mostly Vaccinium angustifolium) is a different species from the more widely grown highbush or cultivated blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum).
And we have Celeryville, Ohio. The muck soil is perfect for the stalks. I doubt that we dominate the celery market, though.
I lived for a time a few miles from Cherryfield, Maine, self-proclaimed Blueberry Capital of the World – there was a big sign proclaiming this just outside town. Blueberries are one of my big favorites so, arriving in Spring I patiently waited for summer when – I imagined – there’d be farmer booths all over the place selling them by the bucket.
Nope, not a one. They must export them all. It was a huge disappointment.
I’m sure you know, but most folks not from NorCal won’t, that the Gilroy Garlic Festival was a casualty of COVID.
I have sampled the garlic wine and garlic ice cream there back in the day. Great once in a lifetime experiences both.
Collinsville IL bills itself the horseradish capital of the world. They have a horseradish festival.
Oddly, the local pronunciation of “horseradish” is “horse-rish” with very slight emphasis on the “horse” syllable over the “rish” syllable.
Also a mass shooting, which happened at the end of the festival in 2019. They couldn’t afford the insurance when the pandemic finally lifted, partly because of that shooting. The festival returned this year, but in a smaller form, with attendance limited to 3,000 people per day.