Where have the fruit stands gone? Long time passing.

I’ve been lazy. At least when it comes to freshening up the old blog. Part of it is because I have been busy. Last month, we left Puerto Vallarta just as the first steamy humid waves of a rain infused summer descended on the city. We arrived in Palm Springs just as the first blow-torch blasts of heat started baking the oven we call the desert (I’m already tired of hearing people say, “Well, is it hot enough for you?” It’s 114, whacha think, eh?). And now we’ve headed to Laguna Beach for three days, part of the house trade thing we’re doing with others who own cool places in resort towns (www.homeexchange.com … check it out).

So as I been living life back in the U.S. for a month now, there are some observations … some good, some not so good … but observations none the less that piqued my interest … and which I will blabber on about … here … on my blog … from time to time ... throughout the summer … in between travel blogs … so here it is … number 1 (damn it, get to it).

In all the years I lived in California, 50+, one of the best things about being here was the summer fruit season. And along with the season came the opening of the roadside fruit and vegetable stands. As a kid, I remember our family taking Highway 99 through Stockton and Fresno and Bakersfield, all along the way the road dotted with billboards “Fresh Tomatoes Ahead,” “Farm Fresh Peaches 1 Mile,” “Local Corn next exit.”

Even as I worked at News10, stories in the summer that took me to Yuba and Sutter Counties meant stopping along Highway 70 and picking up a crate of the biggest and best peaches you ever tasted. And though it was more like a small store than a fruit stand, Pedrick Produce along I-80 in Dixon and Nick’s Produce in Sebastopol always had the best bargains on the freshest local fruits and vegetables in the Sacramento area. But something has changed. The fruit stands of California are disappearing.

A couple of weeks ago when driving from Nevada City to Palm Springs along Highway 99, we had planned on stopping at several of the tiny roadside markets, often staffed the by children of the farmers who grow the tree sweetened fruit and golden corn and juicy tomatoes. We passed through Galt and Stockton and Modesto … plenty of strip malls and shopping centers and Starbucks, but not one fruit stand. Turlock, Merced, Fresno, Visalia … same thing. We were amazed and disappointed.

Then, just outside of Bakersfield, a slice of hope. A hand painted sign perch in a field along the freeway proclaimed “Fresh peaches, next exit.” We pulled off, wound through the tiny town of McFarland, and came upon what apparently is the last of a dying breed ... the California fruit stand. Under a large shady tree, with tables fashioned out of wooden crates, we picked up some apricots and peaches, the kind you used to find everywhere (not like the stuff you buy at Safeway). And I told the farmer, in his plaid shirt and overalls, that I was surprised that there were no longer many fruit stands. “Can’t do it, anymore,” he growled. “The state has shut us down.”

According to this farmer, he said the state regulations have become so onerous for the small farmer, that you pretty much need the type of business license that a grocery store needs even if you want to sell figs or plums by the side of the road. You need restrooms and sanitary facilities for customers. You need to make your stand ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant. You need to pay minimum wage and provide certain benefits to the workers, and there is a minimum age for employment which rules out the kids working at the parents’ stand. As a result, he said, the old fashioned roadside fruit stand is a relic of a bygone era, at least in California. As for his small business, he had workers pick the fruit from his trees and he staffs the stand himself. He put one of those portable outhouses over on the side, along with a sink and soap for sanitation. A patch of carpet was unrolled over the dirt lot to meet handicap requirements. He did the best he could, but was the lone survivor of what used to be a string of such fresh fruit outlets through California’s bread basket. He told me this would probably be his last year.

How much of what he told me is true, I don’t know. But when I Googled California fruit stand regulations, I did find a 2008 article from the Chronicle that pretty much said what the farmer told me, and raised concerns that the fate of the roadside farmer was questionable at best.

So, a part of California history is nearly wiped out by over zealous legislators and bureaucrats … probably the same people that bitch and complain that the fruit you buy in the grocery stores isn’t like what it used to be. And it’s true, The peaches you buy at Safeway or Raleys or Alberstons or most any other store are so hard, you could play baseball (not softball, but baseball) with them. And they never seem to ripen. And tomatoes taste like they were picked green last year, refrigerated, then painted red. Ah, but at least it is all sanitized and wrapped in plastic for us. At the time of a budget crisis and stalement where our elected leaders can’t seem to get their act together to get the state fiscally sound again, at least they are good at one thing … making sure we’re safe from those dangerous fruit and vegetable stands and the toxic food they once sold by the side of the road.

Where have all the fruit stands gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the fruit stands gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the fruit stands gone?
Regulators have closed them every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?