Medfly-Area Lemons Are Sweetened Up

If the gross-out factor doesn’t turn them away, perhaps local pride will reel them in.

Such is the marketing scheme Moorpark rancher Mike Bailey has dreamed up as he prepares to launch an unusual new product: Ground Zero Lemonade.

As the yellow-and-orange label boldly proclaims, this lemonade came from Ventura County’s “No Fly Zone”--the 86-square-mile pocket placed under quarantine this fall in an attempt to contain the Mediterranean fruit fly.

The thought of drinking juice squeezed from lemons grown in a bug-infested area might churn a few stomachs. And even seasoned lemonade drinkers might grow squeamish when they glimpse the small plastic fly glued to the neck of every 16-ounce bottle.

But Bailey is counting on old-fashioned local boosterism--plus the lure of the gimmick--to win over customers.

He believes shoppers will jump to buy “home-grown lemonade that’s pro-agriculture and pro-grower.”

Made from frozen concentrate, Ground Zero Lemonade should hit local farm stands and independent grocery stores early next year, priced at about $1 a bottle. Bailey has pledged to donate at least 5% of his profit to the county’s Fruit Fly Action Cooperative Task Force.

For the record, none of Ground Zero’s lemons were actually grown inside the bug-infested area, which is largely confined to a small grove on the campus of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo. Instead, the lemons come from the wide-ranging quarantine zone, including Bailey’s ranch--where no Medflies have been discovered.

Lemons within the quarantine zone can be sold domestically but cannot be exported to Japan. Bailey anticipates that the ban on overseas sales will “put a dent” in his profits this winter and spring, but he cannot estimate how much he might lose.

“We’re just trying to make it up somehow--maybe with the lemonade,” he said.

A true Ventura County product, Ground Zero is bottled by Chase Bros. Dairy in Oxnard, and the flies are glued on by ARC Industries in Camarillo. Bailey, who works as an advertising designer as well as a rancher, drew up the labels.

And he made sure every one of the bottles carries his motto: “When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.”