John Jiang: With 91.9 KVCR News, I’m John Jiang. As a first year UC Riverside student new to the area looking for adventure, I discovered the California Citrus State Historic Park through maps. As someone who loves the outdoors and nature, the Citrus State Park was a wonderful visit. The park is a 250 acre citrus grove that represents the rich history of citrus in Riverside, located in the Arlington Heights neighborhood. I interviewed State Interpreter I, Jose Cabello to discuss the park’s history, features, and its upcoming 3rd Annual Citrus Festival that takes place on April 5th.
Jose Cabello: Hi, my name is Jose. I am the State Park Interpreter I here at California Citrus State Historic Park. My primary role as an interpreter here for this park is environmental education.
John Jiang: Citrus originated in Asia thousands of years ago, and first made its way into California in the 1700s.
Jose Cabello: One of the first places to grow citrus is actually the San Gabriel Mission. And as citrus started to become a little more popular, especially with the arrival of the Navel Orange in Riverside in 1873. That along with critical natural resources like water having been brought here to the Riverside area through the creation of the Gage Canal, is what really helped accelerate the industry in Riverside and across the Inland Empire. As citrus production became really popular in the late 1800s, there was a sort of a decline in citrus cultivation around the 1950s. When the baby boom is happening right? So there are a lot of people that are starting families, and so there was a big demand for development and homes. And so as early as the 1970s and 80s, the conversation began where the citrus groves in Southern California are disappearing so the state and City of Riverside collaborated together to try to preserve that history and prevent it from vanishing from the area. In 1993 is when the park was established, with the intention of preserving the rich history of California citrus. Here in the park we grow an estimated about 70 different types of citrus and we have two varietal groves here in our park and that's where we showcase the diversity that exists within citrus.
John Jiang: The park partners with Gless Ranch, who manages the citrus operations.
Jose Cabello: And they are in charge of maintaining all of the trees in our park in the commercial grove. Gless Ranch harvests all the fruit that we grow here in the park, and then they’ll sell it. So once the fruit is harvested it’ll get sent to a packing house, and once the fruit is there it’ll get washed, sorted, and then packaged, and sold. And then a portion of what they make comes back to the park.
John Jiang: On the outside the park appears to be a normal citrus farm, and many people drive past it not knowing it is a state park.
Jose Cabello: They pass the park as they’re driving down Van Buren, and they don’t realize that we are more than just a farm, we are actually a state park. We have our museum, which highlights the story of the California citrus industry from citruses’ earliest origins of where it was first discovered to how it made its way here to Southern California. We also have our amphitheatre and gazebo area which we use during special events to either have concerts or movie nights, our Shakespeare in the Park, we have performances out there during the summertime. And we also have a really large picnic area.
John Jiang: As the citrus season comes to an end in April, the park will host its 3rd Annual Citrus Festival.
Jose Cabello: The citrus festival is an annual celebration that is put on by our cooperative, The Friends of California Citrus Park, and this year it's gonna be happening on April 5th, and it’s a day of celebration for our park and there is
opportunities for the community to connect with the park as well as other members in our community. During the citrus festival we’ll have a lot of local organizations that’ll
come and table and talk about what they’re doing in the community. We will also have food vendors, we’ll have music, performances, and of course the fruit which is what everybody comes here for. And we have a big team of volunteers that will help us harvest, wash the fruit, and cut it and so that we can offer samples to the public.
John Jiang: The citrus festival is a free event taking place on Saturday April 5th from 11 AM to 5 PM at the California Citrus State Historic Park, located at Van Buren Blvd and Dufferin Avenue in south Riverside. From KVCR News, I’m John Jiang.
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John Jiang is a first year UC Riverside student majoring in psychology. His involvement with KVCR is through the UCR R’Course POSC190 Radio Storytelling, taught by fellow student Allison Wang.