Doi's Farmers Market

Most of the local Japanese American farms disappeared in the decades after World War II, but one remains. Doi's Farmers Market and the Frank Doi Nursery have three locations in Riverside. Visiting them provides a sense of what the Japanese American family-run diversified farms were once like.

Frank Koso Doi (1918-1998) owned and ran a family nursery and farmer's market in Riverside for almost 40 years. He and his family farmed 150 acres of crops ranging from watermelon to garlic on Polk Street in the La Sierra neighborhood in the postwar years. Since then, most of that land has been sold for development. The produce market remains, now surrounded by Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center, Castle Amusement Park, and restaurants, all on property the family once owned.

Their farmer's stand and fields are still on La Sierra Avenue, just east of the 91 freeway. The Frank Doi Nursery, on Harrison Street just off Magnolia Avenue, is still active and is where Mr. Doi grew seedling vegetable plants and sold them to farmers throughout Southern California. The family's field-fresh tomatoes lured customers to the Doi market long before certified farmers' markets became popular.

The Doi farmers stand sign off La Sierra Avenue.

The office at the La Sierra Avenue farmers stand.

A field of artichokes at the La Sierra Avenue farmers stand.

The sign for Doi's Farmers Market on Polk Street.