California: Fruits and Vegetables

Tomatoes were grown in California by Franciscan priests well before California became part of the United States. California has the right climate for growing tomatoes, with adequate water in the Central Valley and farms large enough to make it economically attractive to invest in the major equipment associated with tomato farming. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, 90 percent of all American processed tomatoes were grown in California.

Old World fruit and citrus trees had also been introduced into California by the Franciscans, but many groves were neglected after the missions were secularized. New groves were planted shortly after the American conquest of California in 1846, and California’s fruit and citrus industry was launched. At first these groves only fed Californians, but as soon as the transcontinental railroad was completed a cascade of fruits poured forth from California. California fruit growers received great publicity at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where the state’s exhibit housed a grove of twenty lemon trees and thirty orange trees and a tower of oranges and lemons. Grapefruit culture began in California in the 1880s. The discovery of the value and sources of vitamin C gave a huge boost to the market for citrus. Sales increased threefold by World War II. California also produces many other tree fruits. For instance, the California Prune and Apricot Growers Association, founded in 1917, marketed the crops of its members under the brand name Sunsweet. As the twenty-first century opened, Sunsweet was the world’s largest handler of dried tree fruits: prunes, apricots, peaches, pears, and apples.