What to See & Do in Citrus Country

California’s citrus story is not a museum piece, though there are fine museums here. It is still standing in the ground — in rows of mature Washington navels that have outlived the men who planted them, in stone irrigation headgates that still channel water exactly as they did in the 1890s, in the lithograph crate labels whose idealized golden skies sold the idea of California to the rest of the country. To spend a day in the groves is to read the founding myth of Southern California in its original language.

The best way to see it is to move between the preserved and the living. Walk a heritage grove in the morning when the fruit is still cool on the branch, study the crate-label art that turned oranges into a national fantasy, then pick your own fruit in an orchard that still works for a living. The three places below — a heritage park, a label museum, and the u-pick groves — together cover the arc from history to harvest.