Fresno County Fruit Trail

Stop 1 on the Fresno County Fruit Trail map is Simonian Farms, on South Clovis Avenue at the edge of Fresno. Visit California describes a big red barn full of antiques, with a model steam train running on 200 feet of track, and vintage tractors and an old caboose outside. The county’s listing calls the 5,000-square-foot barn “Simonian Farms Old Town,” a western-themed town with a tasting saloon, a Route 66 shooting gallery and a general store. The farm grows more than 180 varieties of fruits and vegetables and sells dried fruit and nuts.

The sources disagree on the farm’s age. The county calls it a fourth-generation family farm. Visit California says Fresno residents have come for its nectarines and peaches for five generations. In 2006 the Associated Press described a 20-acre family operation that had grown about 100 varieties for more than 100 years. “People take what they eat for granted,” Stacey Grote, then its operations manager, told the AP. “This is the true history of California.” Bonnie Simonian was co-owner in 2021.

From that barn the trail makes a 60-mile loop through orchards, vineyards and small towns. Fresno County organizes it with the cities and chambers of commerce of Clovis, Fowler, Kingsburg, Orange Cove, Reedley, Sanger and Selma. The map’s numbers match the county’s points-of-interest page, and the last number, 31, is split into letters A through L. The trail is open year round, but each stop keeps its own season, and the county advises calling ahead to catch a particular variety.

Maps are handed out at member stands, chambers and visitor centers. The Sanger District Chamber of Commerce at Stop 4, in what Sanger calls the Nation’s Christmas Tree City, also sells Blossom Trail posters. One number is now a gap. Stop 5, Hudson Farms Fruit Stand on South Academy Avenue in Sanger, is marked closed permanently, with a line of thanks “for all the support over the years!”

Packing sheds and raisins around Selma and Kingsburg

Circle K Ranch, Stop 7, on East Manning Avenue outside Selma, shows visitors its peach, plum and nectarine orchards, grape vineyards and packing house. Its Country Store sells fresh fruit in summer and fall, along with trays of jumbo raisins, almonds, walnuts and pistachios. Tasting is free daily, and picnic tables sit under shade trees. Visit California gives the ranch as 600 acres near Fowler and Selma, family-run since 1946. In Del Rey, Garry’s Country Store at Stop 3 produces its dried fruit and nuts on site. In Selma, Sal’s Mexican Restaurant on Park Street has been family-owned for generations at its original location. An older county listing names the family as the Salazars.

Sun-Maid Growers of California keeps a visitor store on South Bethel Avenue in Kingsburg. Visit California notes that grapes are the county’s No. 1 crop, and that the cooperative grows 50,000 acres of raisin grapes in the Central Valley. Its market sells dried fruit, nuts and chocolate-covered treats along with raisins.

Downtown, on Draper Street, the Kingsburg Chamber of Commerce stands for the Swedish-themed village listed as Stop 13. An older county listing described brightly colored Swedish architecture, Dala horses, Swedish flags and bay trees, and a visitor center offering “a hearty Valkommen.” A few doors along, For the Birds: Garden Gifts sells handcrafted garden pieces and metal art.

On the farm roads around Kingsburg:

• Friesen Family Farms runs a packing shed and fruit stand from May through August. Visit California calls it a fourth-generation operation growing 50 varieties of tree fruit. A past county listing noted that it appeared on Huell Howser’s Road Trip.
• Swedest Fruits sells fruit picked daily, June through August.
• Royal Dawn Berries sells blackberries and blueberries from what Visit California calls a tiny cottage, along with jams. During berry season, coffee cakes and cobblers can be preordered for “Fresh-Baked Fridays.”
• Ramos Torres Winery has a Kingsburg tasting room pouring Rhône-style wines made by Oscar Ramos-Torres, a Central Valley native. He grows nine grape varietals on a 21-acre estate vineyard in the foothills between Coarsegold and Yosemite National Park.

Tasting rooms and a 1921 schoolhouse near Sanger

Kings River Winery, Stop 6, stands on the 40-acre farm just south of Sanger where owner Bob Bagdasarian was raised. His family has grown wine and raisin grapes, peaches, plums and apricots there since 1954, and Bob turned the place toward wine. Schletewitz Family Farms, a third-generation farm on East North Avenue, opens by appointment and offers walking farm tours. Its crops include mandarins, peaches, apricots, plums, pluots, grapes and pomegranates.

Frankwood Avenue holds two stops:

• Cedar View Winery, which shares its address with the Sequoia View Bed and Breakfast.
• The Schoolhouse Restaurant and Tavern, which serves New American food in a country school house. A county listing dates the building to 1921 and gives its former name as the Sherwood Inn.

At Highway 180 and Reed Avenue, the Blossom Trail Fruit Stand sells local peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots from May into October. Wonder Valley Ranch Resort, on Elwood Road, takes guests on horseback trail rides by reservation, August through May.

Two wineries carry long family names in the Sanger country. Maréchal Vineyards sits about 25 minutes southeast of Clovis, by Visit California’s count. Its owner and winemaker, Josh Marshall, comes from a family that began farming around Sanger more than 100 years ago. The winery offers weekend tastings and a Sunday brunch, and its patio over the vines is open for picnics. At Valley Oak Winery, the Ubick family pours small-batch reds from Ubick Vineyards outside Sanger.

Farther along the loop:

• Sweet Girl Farms, Reedley: stone fruit, citrus, grapes, vegetables and cut flowers. Liset Garcia farms and runs the stand, which was described as the trail’s newest stop in 2021.
• Bari Olive Oil Company, Dinuba: named for its founders’ Italian hometown. It presses its olives once, cold, into extra virgin and infused oils.
• Sierra Bluff Peach Farm, Parlier: peaches and apricots, June through September.

Strawberry stands, blueberries and a campus market

The twelve lettered strawberry stands of Stop 31 open daily from April through June, each on its own hours. The county notes that California grows almost 90 percent of the nation’s strawberries, and that most of Fresno County’s crop comes from Hmong and Mien hill-tribe farmers. Visit California puts the share at an estimated 95 percent and says these communities emigrated to the area from Laos. Its guide tells drivers to look for the strawberry icon on the map.

Berries continue at the north end of the loop. Fresno Blueberry Farm and Nursery, Stop 30, offers U-Pick and We Pick for berries, stone fruit and vegetables. In Clovis, the Smittcamp family runs Wawona’s Peach Tree Fruit Stand. MOA Oasis Garden gives farm and garden tours and holds the Organic Stone Fruit Jubilee. Old Town Clovis is a restored downtown of antique shops and restaurants. At Fresno State, the Gibson Farm Market sells produce, ice cream and wines made by the university’s students.

A map at twenty-nine cents

The Fruit Trail grew out of an older drive. The Fresno County Blossom Trail, a 90-mile route through orchards in bloom, dates to 1988, according to the AP’s 2006 account. That account says the Blossom Trail spawned others, among them a Fruit Trail of roadside stands that follows in May. The county says the tour was created through a partnership between elected and civic leaders and farmers. A 2014 version of its page placed those farmers in eastern Fresno County. A University of California survey from November 2009 records both trails as organized in 2004 by the Fresno County Office of Tourism.

Slides by Richard Molinar, of UC Cooperative Extension in Fresno and the statewide UC Small Farm Program, trace the early years:

• 2004: the first map and website, with 32 agritourism businesses and eight farmers markets.
• 2005: more stands and ten Hmong strawberry growers were added, and the UC Small Farm Center became a sponsor.
• 2006: the opening ceremony was held at the Vineyard Farmers Market, with farmers’ displays and county supervisor Judy Case.
• 2010: the listings reached 51, including 26 strawberry stands.
• 2011: the count stood at 37 locations and 26 farms.

Ten thousand maps cost about $2,700 to print and $1,100 for graphics, or 29 cents apiece, a price that had run as high as 43 cents. The trail was promoted through AAA, tourism offices in Japan, Korea and Europe, and the World Travel Market in London and Berlin. When Huell Howser featured it on California Gold in 2010, the online map logged 800 hits in two days. Molinar’s last advice on the slides was short: “Can’t be static.”

Lean seasons followed. The 2009 survey found two part-time staff working about 20 hours a week in total, on a budget recently cut 75 percent. By then, members received a colored metal sign along with their listing. In 2014 the county warned that drought and a warm winter had brought tree fruit early, left apricots and cherries in shorter supply, and pushed prices to reflect the cost of water and energy.

The 16th season opened on May 23, 2019, at Kings River Winery. Circle K Ranch, Poindexter Nut Co., Berry Lady Farms, Royal Dawn Berries, Hudson Farms and Simonian Farms set out displays, along with strawberry vendors and UC small farm advisors. Sanger ran its third annual Fruit Trail Bus Tour that June.

The 23rd season opened at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 8, 2026, at the Grace Barn on South Highland Avenue in Del Rey. Speakers included Supervisor Buddy Mendes, Agricultural Commissioner Melissa Cregan and Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen. Fruit Trail members set out their fruit for sampling. By then, the county reported, the stands already held strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, apricots, peaches and nectarines.