April 16, 2018
Not long ago, the hills were strung with the clustered pearls of trees. As we drove up the 5 Freeway with the top down, the sugary scent of all those blossoms had a way of lingering.
In a generation, Orange County went from farm to city. From a $30 million cash crop spreading across nearly 70,000 acres at its peak in 1948, the county now has 40 commercial acres of oranges logged by the Orange County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office.
Funny thing about the history of oranges here: When the founders named us Orange County, we weren’t exactly overflowing with citrus. It was 1871, only eight years past a drought that wiped out cattle fortunes and forced the sale and development of huge tracts of land. So it’s possible the branding was something of a gimmick: If we name it, they will come. And come they did the oranges, and the people, too.