Back in the 1920’s agriculture played a dominant role in the San Fernando Valley region.  At one point 75,000 acres of Valley land between towns and subdivisions was used for farming, which included 750,000 citrus trees.

By the 1990’s the Valley’s working citrus industry dwindled to just one, the Bothwell Ranch.  It is located in Tarzana at the corner of Oakdale Ave and Collier St, just a half mile south of Ventura Blvd.

Now it is up for sale.  The asking price is $13.9 million.  Collier International and Coldwell Banker is billing the property as “an incredibly rare infill development opportunity”.  Marketing materials include a site plan that would split the 14 acres into 26 half acre lots for development into 2-4 million dollar single family homes.  How sad.  Click below to read the article about it.

The good news is that not too far away is the last historic orange grove of San Fernando Valley owned and protected by CSUN.  The area includes 400 orange trees, a pond, bistro, and observatory.  The orange grove has thousands of fresh, free oranges waiting to be picked by you!  Anyone from anywhere can pick oranges at any time from the orange grove.  Have fun, and make sure to feed the red-eared slider turtles in the pond too!