the Food Bank Farm of Orangevale & Fair Oaks Harvests Fresh Citrus for the Community

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 Orangevale & Fair Oaks, harvesting fruit for the food bank to give out to people in need. Our region has had an abundance of lemons, grapefruits, oranges and mandarins ever since settlers came to the region and planted the fields. Decades later, residents continued the practice, planting all different varieties of citrus in their backyards, from Meyer lemons to blood oranges for their enjoyment. But because citrus grows so well, many have more than they need.

The food bank farm has a citrus-picking program made up of volunteers who go to various homes during the growing season from December to March. Many of the homes have been on the schedule for years due to their abundant fruit.

“Some of them have a tree or two. There are some people in Orangevale who have 20 grapefruit and lemon trees in their backyard. There’s quite a bit of food out there to harvest,” said Steve Leland, a farm support staff member and leader of the citrus picking group. 

Steve’s crew typically went out once a week during the citrus season. He says the citrus stays on the tree for quite a while so they don’t need to rush as soon as it’s ripe.

“A lot of grapefruit this year so far. They ripen at different times in the winter through spring,” Leland said. “Sometimes you think there’s not many out there then you go out and there’s three hours of work to do.”

On this Friday, the crew harvested 1,000 pounds of grapefruit. They weigh all the fruit once they return to the food bank. This current season has a very robust harvest. The extra fruit was sold at the Food Bank Farm Stand for the outstanding price of $1 a bag. The food bank farm harvesters currently have enough homes on their schedule to pick from and don’t need any more. They yielded about 4500 pounds this season. 

Many of us either have citrus trees or passed trees brimming with fruit and wished it could be shared with others. The Orangevale-Fair Oaks Food Bank is doing just that.

“It doesn’t go to waste,” Leland said.

• By Judy Farah