Space Plant Down to Earth About Grapefruit
Sophisticated aerospace products roll out of the Teledyne Systems plant in Northridge. So do grapefruit.
Part of what was one of the Valley’s largest commercial citrus orchards has been carefully preserved by Teledyne officials since 1968, when they built their headquarters and production plant at the corner of Nordhoff Street and Corbin Avenue.
The 71-year-old grapefruit trees have been pruned, watered and fertilized by the company every year since. Fruit from about 500 trees is free for the taking for the firm’s 1,600 workers.
These days, many of the engineers and technicians are as apt to step up to a tree for a snack as to a candy machine in a company break room.
The devotees at Teledyne claim that the grapefruit is as tasty to nibble as the sweetest Valencia orange--provided one sprinkles a pinch of salt on the fruit before biting.
To at least one person outside the company, the grapefruit is more important than the satellite-guidance gear Teledyne produces.
She is Catherine Mulholland, who lives in Chatsworth but was raised in Northridge when the Teledyne site was part of her family’s 700-acre Mulholland Orchard Co.
“I say thank goodness for Teledyne,” the 64-year-old Mulholland said. “I thank God that a little bit was saved. I’m always afraid that the next time I drive down Nordhoff Street that I’ll look over and even those trees will be gone.”
Her father, Perry Mulholland, son of the famous William Mulholland, who brought water to the Los Angeles area from the Owens Valley, planted the orchard in 1916, she said. The crop included several types of oranges and walnuts along with about 30 acres of grapefruit. On chilly winter nights, it took 11,000 smudge pots to prevent the citrus crop from freezing.
Mulholland’s father lived on the ranch until he died in 1962. After that, the orchards were sold in bits and pieces to developers to satisfy growing tax bills, she said.
“When I lived there, I just took it all for granted,” Mulholland said. “Now I look back at it as wonderful. I miss that great sense of space.”
Lots of Room
On the 35-acre Teledyne site, the remaining grapefruit trees give workers a sense of elbow room that they say is missing from most other aerospace plants.
Workers eat lunch on picnic tables spaced beneath the trees. Officials hold departmental meetings in the orchard. The annual company picnic also is held there, next to a gazebo in the middle of the grove.
Charles Scott, Teledyne’s director of industrial services, who helped pick the Northridge site and plan it in the mid-1960s, said the fruit trees were a selling point.
“We wanted the orchard to be part of the architecture and the landscaping,” Scott said. “Having to rip out the trees was one of the things you hated to do.”
The design of the Teledyne building by architect Cesar Pelli won several architectural awards after it was completed. It was one of the first mirror-sided buildings of its type.
The reflective glass enhances the look of the orchard, giving passers-by the impression that the grove is larger than it is.
There is still plenty of fruit to harvest in the summer, Scott said.
Pickers Stopped Coming
“At first, we had pickers come in, and we sold the grapefruit to them by the ton,” he said. “But, when other orchards in the Valley were shut down, the packing houses closed and the pickers stopped coming.”
These days, the orchard is a nonprofit affair. And, for Teledyne workers, the grapefruit is free. The company’s employees association puts long-armed picking tools in plant lobbies for workers’ use when the fruit is ripe, and outside groups, such as senior-citizens clubs, sometimes ask to help with the harvests, he said.
“It’s delicious fruit,” said Marianne Fujii, an executive secretary at the plant. “Some years are better than others. This year, there’s been a delicious crop.”
