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Flowers
Riverside, California
There have been private farmers' markets in and around Riverside, California for over a century. Until recently, Riverside County was a large agricultural producer. Riverside city, the county seat, had dairies, small vegetable farms, thousands of acres planted in oranges and lemons, nurseries, chickens, and scattered livestock farming. Most of these producers have left the city because of subdivision of the agricultural lands. In the 1980s, the city sought to preserve several thousand acres of citrus orchards by imposing a five-acre minimum. In the 1990s, nonetheless, many of these acreages were lost to nurseries. The reason has to do with the economics of water. The citrus lands, dating from the late nineteenth century, have private water rights running with the land and supplied through canals by a private water company from the mountains and wells near the mountains. The water remains very inexpensive. Nurseries from nearby Orange County purchased the citrus groves and replaced them to take advantage of the open land and the cheap water.
The new farmers' market in the city's civic center is promoted by the city government. This morning, it was not well attended by farmers or by shoppers. There were perhaps a dozen or so stalls. Most stalls were occupied by produce farmers. There were several florists, and also a demonstration kitchen. No meat was for sale, but there were eggs, which the farmers assured a customer were fresh.