Forklifts sit motionless at the once‑bustling Corona‑College Heights Orange & Lemon Association packing house in Riverside County.
After 125 harvest seasons, the grower cooperative —one of California’s oldest continuous produce brands— has filed Chapter 7 liquidation, spelling a hard goodbye for a food company that packed oranges, lemons and grapefruit nonstop, year‑round.
From horse‑drawn wagons to global pallets
Launched in 1899 by ten growers pooling horse carts and primitive washers, the food company weathered two world wars, the Great Depression, fourteen mergers and half a dozen freak freezes.
By the 1990s, it touted “the longest Valencia season in the business,” shipping citrus to 50,000…