Central and Southern California Lima Beans

Lima beans have been a part of the central and southern landscape of California for over 150 years. Farmers realized the coast offered fertile soil and the natural moisture of coastal fog, and only a minimal workforce was needed until harvesting.

Robert McAllister's chance encounter with a ship from Lima, Peru, off the coast of Carpinteria led to a small quantity of beans being planted, and they prospered. By the 1880s, the beans were introduced in Ventura County, and Orange County followed. San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and San Diego all tried their hand at the dry farming crop, as did the farmers in Lompoc, Santa Maria, and Monterey County. California became the largest lima bean producer in the world. While other crops and city encroachment have replaced the vast acreage of lima beans, parts of the Oxnard Plain, Lompoc, Monterey, Costa Mesa, and other scattered fields continue the tradition.

Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt is a fifth-generation descendant of two lima bean-farming families, the Maulhardts and Borchards. He has written 17 local history books, including his last book, Ventura County Lima Beans: A History. To expand on the central and southern sections of California, Maulhardt traveled the state to showcase the photographic history of the lima bean.