About Citrus Roots

Not the original citrusroots.com archive. The citrusroots.com domain previously hosted an editorial archive of California citrus history (linked by ca.gov, ucdavis.edu, lacounty.gov, and CNRS). When that archive went offline and the domain lapsed, CT acquired it in 2026. The current editorial publication is a SEPARATE team and is NOT a continuation of the original archive, NOT affiliated with the prior archivists, scholars, or institutions, and NOT endorsed by any university or government body that linked to the original archive. The prior-archive documentary content is NOT republished on this site; legacy URLs are noindex stubs only.

Citrus Roots is an editorial publication covering the history of California’s citrus industry — from the Spanish mission groves of the eighteenth century to the cooperative marketing empire of Sunkist, the labor history of the Southern California citrus belt, and the institutional legacy of the universities and libraries that have documented this era.

Our editorial work CITES (it does not republish) the primary collections at the UC Riverside Citrus Variety Collection, the Cal Poly Pomona W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Library, the California State University San Bernardino Special Collections, the Claremont Colleges Library, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture statistical archives — all of which are publicly accessible at their own institutions.

Our Coverage

California Citrus History — The institutional history of California citrus: the Southern California Fruit Exchange (1893), its reorganization as the California Fruit Growers Exchange (1905), the Sunkist brand (1908), and the cooperative marketing model that shaped the modern American produce industry.

Growing Regions — An overview of California’s citrus counties, from the historic Southern California citrus belt (Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Los Angeles) to the contemporary production districts of the San Joaquin Valley (Tulare, Kern, Fresno).

Research Sources — A curated bibliography of primary and secondary research sources for California citrus scholarship.

Contributions — An editorial accounting of the scholars, growers, archivists, and civic organizations whose work has preserved California citrus history.

About the Editorial Team

Articles are published under the collective byline “The editors of Citrus Roots.” This site does not name individual authors. The editorial team comprises writers with backgrounds in California agricultural history, citrus-belt civic institutions, and the labor + water-rights dimensions of California agriculture — but we attribute work to the publication rather than to individuals.

Contact

Questions, corrections, and research inquiries are welcome via the contact form.