Desert Star Farm was founded in 2013. Our farm is located in the beautiful town of Borrego Springs, California. Borrego Springs, known as California’s ‘Secret Desert’, is located about 78 miles northeast of San Diego in the Borrego Valley of southeastern California.
We felt Borrego Springs was the perfect place to grow and nurture our luscious citrus fruits and dates because it is a quaint, small town with a idyllic climate and rich heritage of successful farming and agriculture. Currently, we have crops of dates, oranges, tangelos, lemons and pomegranates. Our crops are carefully tended to throughout the day and nourished by the rich soils and history of this great land.
History of Borrego Springs. Cattlemen began homesteading the Borrego Valley in about 1875. The first successful well was dug in 1926, which quickly led to irrigation farming.
Lieutenant Pedro Fages of the San Diego Presidio is the first record of a European in Borrego Valley when he came to town in search of deserters in 1772. His pursuit led him northwest through the present town of Borrego Springs and up Coyote Canyon.
Kumeyaay Indians related this event to members of the first Anza expedition, who camped at their village in March 1774. The Spaniards called this village (and spring) just east of the Borrego Sink, San Gregorio. It is the location of the original Borrego Spring.
Juan Bautiste De Anza was seeking an overland route from Sonora, Mexico to Monterey, California. Proceeding west from San Gregorio, he and his party of 25 followed Coyote Creek and ascended Coyote Canyon. They camped the following night at the Cahuilla village of Lower Willows,
Location and Climate. Borrego Springs is situated in the extreme western Sonoran Desert, which is why it is considered California’s secret. It is completely surrounded by the 600,000-acre Borrego Desert State Park. With consistently warm temperatures throughout the year, Desert Star Farm citrus and dates are in an ideal climate to thrive.
The key to quality citrus fruit lies not only in the cultivation but also in the temperature. They thrive best when temperatures are consistently above freezing. Citrus fruits need sunshine and warm weather in order to provide the absolute highest quality fruit. If this requirement is undermined this will destine a crop that is inferior to expectations. Because our farm is situated in the ideal climate for perpetually warm temperatures and sunshine, we produce perpetually superior crops of dates and citrus.