Fresno County Blossom Trail has welcomed visitors from across America for 33 years and continues despite a global pandemic. This year, the 62-mile stretch of blossoms opened up Feb. 12 and is estimated to conclude in mid-March. 

Not only does this field of blossoms inhabit a variety of trees, such as apple, nectarine, almond, plum, peach and citrus, but it also intrigues visitors with a local cafe, ‘Blossom Trail Cafe.’ 

Jessica Perez, manager at the cafe, shares how COVID has affected business despite being in the country.

“It was a short period of time, thank God, but it definitely slowed business down.”

The Blossom Trail Cafe menu has many breakfast and lunch dishes including a garden burger, philly cheesesteak and waffles, along with a kids’ menu. The most popular dish from the cafe is the cinnamon roll french toast along with a staff favorite the pastrami sandwich.

The Blossom Trail serves people from all over the world each year. From locals who visit annually, to visitors all the way from China and Maine, everyone is eager to whip out their phones and share their experience at the Blossom Trail. 

Perez continues to share about how the environment is very comfortable and feels like family.

“We all mingle together. The waitresses know all of the regulars and we try to get to know everybody.” 

Perez has worked at The Blossom Trail Cafe for 10 years and enjoys the view every day. She grew up in Selma and moved to Fresno when she was offered a job at the Blossom Trail.

“It’s a really fun atmosphere,” Perez continues. “and makes for a really great environment.” 

Some things that you can do while visiting the blossoms are bike rides through the open trails, a picnic with orchard picking or a drive in the open air with your morning coffee. The blossom trails are all over Fresno drawing in people from all different places and creates a beautiful simplicity to the Central Valley.

The blossom trails are an amazing opportunity to take a morning off and explore the beautiful orchards with your favorite lunch. Many foreign visitors enjoy coming mid-February to get bright, colorful photos to update their social media.

According to Fresno County Farm Bureau, Fresno’s most popular crops are almonds and grapes. Tim Sheehan of The Fresno Bee created an illustration in 2018 which documented the numbers of crop acres planted in Fresno County.

Fun Facts: The Blossom Trail Cafe encourages any visitors who come through to return during summertime when the fruits are ripe to sample and savor as you enjoy the view. 

If you come at the right time when the fruits are starting to grow on the trees, the orange scent is so thick that you can taste it in the air! 

Blossom Trail offers an opportunity to share your photos of their fields on their website. The best photos are then entered into the Big Fresno Fair annual Bloom Trail art competition!

For a video of The Blossom Trail, FOX26 reporters Stephen Hawkins and Jenna Liston visited an almond orchard to talk about the Fresno County Blossom Trail, Feb. 26, 2021. Read last year’s Feather article, Fresno County Blossom Trail 2020, to know about more of Fresno County’s Ag gem and watch the slideshow.

For more photos, visit The Feather media page. For more articles, read The 38th Annual FCS Auction is online, March 10-20 and Podcasting creates connections through universal challenges.