judysfarah

You would think that if you set out to find out how Orangevale and Fair Oaks got their names for an Orangevale-Fair Oaks Community Foundation story, it would be easy, right? Not so much. Residents probably assume Orangevale was named after all our orange trees, and Fair Oaks because of the oak trees along the American River. It turns out, the answer to how the towns got their names is not an easy answer. Both names evolved during their early history. Orangevale began as the Orange Vale...

On a sunny Friday morning in a residential neighborhood in Fair Oaks, a group of men and women armed with ladders, fruit pickers, gardening gloves and about a dozen wooden boxes get to work. They’re busy in the backyard, surrounding two mature grapefruit trees. One by one, they either pick the ripe fruit by hand or pluck it with the telescopic metal picker. Once they fill a box, it’s carried to the flatbed of the truck parked in the driveway. They’re volunteers from the Food Bank Farm of...

The biggest food drive of the year for our community is coming up to help our neighbors in need.