In the midmorning heat, hundreds of people lined up outside a San Joaquin Valley farm this week to get their haul from large blue bins filled with thousands of bright red nectarines. The fruit was free for the taking.
“It was going to rot on a tree again, and I said let’s give it away,” said farmer Cesar Mora. “Let’s let people at least enjoy it, because I take pride in what I do.”
Mora has been mired in a contract dispute with Giumarra Brothers Fruit Co. revolving around his nectarine crop for the last few years. He and the large L.A.-based produce company have dueling legal complaints over a contract delineating how the fruit was to be marketed and sold. As a result, Mora says he can’t sell the fruit, and so he decided on the mega-giveaway of more than a hundred thousand pounds of white-flesh nectarines.
The giveaway outside the small town of Reedley ran from Monday to Friday. People traveled to the farm in large groups, toting bags to collect the nectarines.
For more than 30 years, Mora has farmed in Central Valley. He grew up learning how to grow and harvest stone fruit, with the dream of one day owning his own farm. But it has been challenging to get the financing.
“So I’ve had to do this kind of on my own,” Mora said. “I rented a ranch about 10 years ago.”
On those rented 50 acres, Mora grows three varieties of plums, as well as peaches and nectarines. The Monalise nectarines affected by the legal dispute make up about 15% of the farm, he said.
In a statement responding to Mora’s “No Nectarines Wasted” campaign, Giumarra Bros. Fruit Co. said: “At its heart, this is a disagreement involving two written agreements, and it is being resolved the right way — in court and on the facts.”
Mora said he didn’t want all that fruit to be wasted so he opted for the giveaway.
On the first day, Mora’s crew expected to set out 5,000 pounds of nectarines. This changed when they noticed the large crowd, so they brought out more. They handed them out in 30-pound bags. By the end of the day, they’d given away a little more than 20,000 pounds of the fruit. The next day it was 50,000 pounds, and the following day it was 55,000.
Mora said that the excitement surrounding the fruit has been the most gratifying part.
By Friday afternoon, Mora had given away 182,000 pounds of the nectarines.
The excitement among visitors surprised him. Mora said that people came to the farm in groups, with some even blocking the street. Mora said in his line of work he doesn’t often receive thanks.
As he drove near the giveaway event on his tractor on Tuesday, visitors began to applaud.
“I mean personally that was really touching for me,” he said. “I’ve never been applauded like that for my job.”
Mora said that, at the end of the day, some people even came to the orchard to pick up the fruit that had been tossed to the side.