YES, KIDDIES, FOOD GROWS UP IN TREES FAMILIES FIND PICK OF VALLEY.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

For her homemade marmalades and jams, Pat Davies went right to the source for her ingredients on Sunday.

The Canoga Park woman and hundreds of others picked Valencia oranges and white grapefruit during the weekend at Orcutt Ranch, one of the last remaining orchards in the San Fernando Valley.

``None of the fruit is like what's in the stores,'' said Davies as her picking pole snared a grapefruit, half the size of those in markets. ``It's fresher and nicely ripe. There's a lot more flavor so it should be sweeter.''

Every year the ranch opens its orchards to the public in July and again after Thanksgiving for self-picked grapefruit.

The fees - $2 per full grocery bag or $5 for a medium-size boxful - are used to purchase supplies for the 24-acre ranch.

``It's all organic fruit,'' said Brad Haynes, park maintenance supervisor. ``A lot of people don't know you can come out and pick natural fruit.''

Organizations that feed the homeless are allowed to pick for free as often as they want at the former working ranch. Other fruit drops to the ground and is recycled back into the soil.

Haynes said the twice-a-year fruit picking for personal use is to let residents know about the ranch off Roscoe Boulevard.

The Spanish-style estate, built in 1921 as a vacation home by William and Mary Orcutt, once covered 200 acres. Declared a local historical site, it was purchased by the Los Angeles city Recreation and Parks Department in 1966.

Besides the 16 acres of citrus trees, the ranch includes more than 500 rose bushes, a 700-year-old oak tree with a 33-foot circumference and an area where local residents can rent a plot and raise their own fruits and vegetables.

Several thousand visitors walk through or picnic each year at the ranch, popular with children, couples getting married and Hollywood filmmakers, Haynes said. ``Monkeybone'' with Brendan Fraser was filmed on site, he said.

The oranges drew Maria Mercado back a second day Sunday. On Saturday, ``I picked 12 buckets in an hour and a half,'' said the Van Nuys resident, eating an orange wedge. ``It's so sweet.''

The five-gallon buckets of oranges will be used for juice, said Mercado, who has been coming to the ranch for seven years.

``They are a lot sweeter,`` explained the woman's daughter, also named Maria Mercado. ``And being fresh off the tree, we can store them longer, compared to the ones in the stores.''

Claire Penisson and her two daughters, 3-year-old Emily and 8-year-old Megan, half-filled a bag with oranges they picked in 20 minutes.

``We're just doing it for fun,'' said the woman, who liked to pick her own apples, blueberries and other fruit while living in Paris for the past 11 years. ``I like it because the children can see fruit grow on trees, and oranges don't come from stores.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Sean Salica, 5, pulls a wagonload of grapefruit, above, that he and his father, Bill, picked Sunday, while at left Krista Walter-Dawahare and her son Wyatt, 6, pick together at Orcutt Ranch, one of the last citrus ranches in the Valley.

(3) Jerry Evjen of Chatsworth chooses his citrus straight from the tree on a self-picking weekend at Orcutt Ranch, owned by the city Recreation and Parks Department.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer