Beyond the Orange Groves: Riverside's Small Farm Revolution

Riverside has a prominent place in agricultural history. It became the birthplace of the Washington navel orange industry in California when Eliza Tibbets planted two young trees in her front yard in the early 1870s.

One of its universities, the University of California, Riverside, conducts extensive agricultural research and manages a large collection of citrus varieties. According to their website, the Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection at UCR contains information on more than 1,100 cultivars.

And let's not forget the Riverside greenbelt, home to the California State Historic Citrus Park, farms, and farmstands where residents can buy fresh produce along historic Victoria Avenue. With this article, I aim to offer a glimpse into the greenbelt and the small-scale farms that operate within it.

According to Scott Berndt, board member of the Riverside Food System Alliance (RFSA) and the Riverside Food Co-op (RFC), Riverside is home to a 5,000-acre agriculture preserve. The mission of the RFSA is to bring beginning and experienced farmers to Riverside to farm vacant lands and help them become part of the local food system. Berndt says there are 1,000 vacant acres within the greenbelt, and they hope to develop these areas with farms and incubator farms to establish a food hub. The plan is to have the food hub serve as a location where local farms can bring produce to sell to institutional buyers, school districts, and other entities.

Berndt says many local farmers want to turn this region into a produce-growing area that can serve Southern California. "We live within 50 miles in all directions of 25 million consumers. Why aren't we growing more produce for them?" asks Berndt.

While the Riverside Food Systems Alliance works to develop new farmland and connect local farmers to institutional buyers, another local program works to connect farmers with Riverside residents.

The Riverside Food Co-op is a member-owned grocer. The Cooperative cites as a strength its ability to deliver ripe seasonal produce to its members. Lifetime membership is available to residents for a one-time fee of $100 that members can pay in installments.

Sue Struthers, the Co-op's treasurer, says members are eligible to buy a Member Crop Box containing fresh, ripe produce from local farms. Currently, a crop box costs $37 per month. The Food Co-op's ultimate goal is to open a grocery store in Riverside where they can sell produce, eggs, local jams, and other items. At the moment, Struthers says the Co-op's biggest challenge is finding a suitable building they can afford. There also needs to be parking, and the site needs to be accessible and visible. To achieve a sustainable model that supports a store, the Food Co-op needs 1,000 members. It currently has 625 active members.

So far, we've looked at farming through a traditional agricultural lens. Now, we'll consider other approaches to farming in Riverside.

Not every farmer in town became a farmer on purpose. Some stumbled onto it—and their farmer identity—an identity they now wouldn't trade for anything else.

These farmers don't own acres of land and manage teams of people year-round. They grow crops on smaller parcels, sometimes two acres or less. Sometimes, these farms are referred to as small farms, homesteads, or backyard farms. For this article, I will refer to them as small family farms.

Alarie Gifford and her husband Ryan are the proprietors of Gold Acre Farm. This Riverside farm resides on approximately 1⅓ acres. Of this, one acre is dedicated to a grove of 150 Gold Nugget Mandarin trees, a variety of citrus developed at UC Riverside.

When the pandemic arrived in 2020, Gifford lived in a small home with her husband and four children. She and her husband decided they didn't need to live the way they were living and that they could choose what their life looked like. Ryan always wanted to have an orchard, so they began looking for homes in Southern California with enough space to plant what they wanted and provide more room for their family. They chose to purchase a home in Riverside because of its small-town feeling. They were already familiar with this area because Ryan grew up here. Even so, he says he never knew the greenbelt existed.

Gifford says the farming experience has been better than she was expecting. "It's been an awesome opportunity for our family to work together in physical ways that I don't think our culture offers as much nowadays," explains Gifford.

Candace Haney is the manager of AVOHA, a small family farm specializing in Fuerte avocados. Haney owns and maintains the farm with her husband and children.

Haney says she and her family did not plan on having a farm. She says her husband saw the property for sale and fell in love with the view and the space it would provide for their family. Haney began caring for the trees and now tends to approximately 150 avocado trees and 40–50 fruit trees.

Applying her background in logistics and shipping, Haney has established a process for packing and shipping Fuerte avocados, which are more challenging to ship than Hass avocados because they tend to bruise easily. Online shipping has been her primary means of distribution. She fills orders by picking fruit by hand and then shipping them the same day or the next, ensuring customers receive fresh avocados.

When asked what she'd like people to know about small family farms, Haney says she hopes people gain an appreciation for smaller farms. She goes on to say the fruit "might be more expensive, but you know the quality is unparalleled."

Liberty Naud manages Sunsets and Citrus, a private family farm featuring 187 fruit trees that include mango, fig, pomegranate, tangerine, orange, grapefruit, Asian pears, apples, and avocado. A preceptor at Cal Baptist University, Naud works with students who earn credit by engaging in community-based work. Naud leads students in conversations about nutrition and pesticide-free farming.

After purchasing the property, Naud dedicated herself to learning about the trees and the soil that supported their growth. When she mapped the trees on her property, she discovered she owned a diverse collection of fruit trees and that she shared a banana tree with a neighbor. "I've got 187 children that all have different temperaments and needs, and I love it," says Naud.

Noticing there weren't any U-pick farms in town, Naud chose this operating model for her family farm. She said she loves telling families that they can pick fruit right off the tree and eat it without worrying about chemicals.

Naud welcomes visitors by appointment only. Sunsets and Citrus does not charge admission. Instead, the farm invites guests to consider contributing to farm operations; the amount they contribute is up to them. Guests receive a 10-pound bag that can sometimes hold more, depending on how it is filled. The farm's policy is: "If you can tie it, you can buy it." Naud says she has never had anyone pick fruit and not make a contribution.

Gold Acre Farm, AVOHA, and Sunsets and Citrus are three examples of what small family farming looks like in Riverside. While growing fruit for one's family and community comes with many rewards, there are also challenges. One of them is marketing.

Fortunately, organizations such as the Riverside Food Systems Alliance and the Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District (RCRCD) help with this.

This month, the RCRCD will offer a free workshop for small farms. The workshop, "Understanding Organic and Small Farm Marketing," is scheduled for Wednesday, July 16, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Leading the conversation will be Brandon Wickes, Organic Project Contractor at the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. He will introduce farmers to the Small Organic Farmer Marketing Toolkit. This free workshop serves as one example of how RCRCD provides agricultural support to local farmers under the leadership of Agricultural Conservation Advisor Adriana Murguia.

To learn more about the farming community in Riverside and how you can support it, visit the Riverside Food Systems Alliance and the Riverside Food Co-op online.

By Tania Marien 
Tania is an environmental careers correspondent and podcast producer. She is the editor of Transferable Solutions, a newsletter about reimagining environmental skills.