2025 Pick Event is CANCELLED

FOR IMME­DI­ATE RELEASE
Octo­ber 29, 2025

SNOWY JAN­U­ARY PUTS FREEZE ON BATON ROUGE CITRUS

BATON ROUGE, LA — For the first time since 2014, Baton Rouge Green will not hold its annu­al Pick Event to har­vest cit­rus fruit in Decem­ber from res­i­dents’ sat­suma, grape­fruit, lemon and orange trees for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.

Reports from home cit­rus tree own­ers across the area con­firm what Baton Rouge Green arborists already sus­pect­ed: that most cit­rus trees didn’t sur­vive the remark­able snow­fall and 7‑degree tem­per­a­tures seen this past Jan­u­ary, with res­i­dents receiv­ing 8 to 9 inch­es of snow that remained on the ground for sev­er­al days. Those trees that sur­vived are not pro­duc­ing fruit as of yet.

“Grow­ing cit­rus in Louisiana has sad­ly become near­ly impos­si­ble, if not cost pro­hib­i­tive. What was one of our quin­tes­sen­tial Louisiana foods has lost the reli­a­bil­i­ty we have long enjoyed. Our win­ters have become less reli­able and more unpre­dictable, which is sim­ply not com­pat­i­ble with grow­ing cit­rus. At Baton Rouge Green our fruit tree plant­i­ng and har­vest­ing is evolv­ing, and we are diver­si­fy­ing our selec­tions to con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing for our com­mu­ni­ty into the future. ​“says Christo­pher Coop­er, Direc­tor of Oper­a­tions and Lead Arborist for the non-profit.

Each Decem­ber since 2014 Baton Rouge Green has trained, equipped and deployed vol­un­teer pick­ers to care­ful­ly har­vest the fruit with­out dam­ag­ing trees, and then trans­port the fruit to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. The fruit is then dis­trib­uted to the Food Bank’s pantries across the region. Since begin­ning the effort, The Pick Event has har­vest­ed more than 40,000 pounds of fresh cit­rus fruit for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. In most cas­es, this fruit would have gone to waste.

“We are obvi­ous­ly dis­ap­point­ed that our most beloved vol­un­teer event of the year isn’t pos­si­ble for 2025. Our hope is for a more fruit­ful 2026!” said Sage Foley, Baton Rouge Green’s Exec­u­tive Director.

Area res­i­dents who do have fruit trees bear­ing cit­rus that they can­not har­vest or con­sume, Baton Rouge Green staff and appren­tices may be able to sched­ule a har­vest­ing vis­it. To inquire, please con­tact Win­ston Hor­ton at winston@​batonrougegreen.​com or call the office at 381‑0037.
 

#SHARETHE­FRUIT