It’s the 1940s: a tiny baby alligator is on its way from Florida in a wooden Velveeta cheese box, arriving at the Pfeiler family’s farm in Oxnard, Calif.. The alligator — named Horace — began living in a pond on the property, occasionally escaping into nearby lemon orchards. He grew close to seven feet long, surviving on hamburgers and bologna snacks from the family. In the present, Joe Pfeiler, great-grandson, bought an engraved brick in the alligator’s honor, placing him among others commemorating families, businesses and community members of Oxnard’s history.
This remarkable story of Horace the alligator and the Pfieler family is only one of many that lie hidden within the history of the Oxnard Plain. Held in Oxnard Historic Farm Park on Sept. 13, 2025, Ventura County’s second annual Lima Bean Festival aimed to share the stories and memories of the agricultural families of the county — just like the Pfeilers — while providing entertainment and raising money for the park’s foundation.
“[The Oxnard Historic Farm Park] is such a powerhouse for the agricultural community,” Brandon Burns, a knowledgeable volunteer, said. “This is pretty much where it started.”
Inside the park, buildings, artifacts and farm equipment serve as reminders of the past, such as the 1869 brick farmhouse and cellar on the property, the oldest building in the Oxnard Plain. Gardens are sprinkled throughout the area, representing plants from Ventura County’s farming history, like sugar beets, barley, grapes and lima beans.
“Lima beans are kind of weird, right?” Burns asked. “But it’s a big part of our history … [The festival] gets to tell a story and it gets to keep things alive.” He went on to explain, “We don’t have many things like this where you can look back on history.”
An improvement from the previous year’s festival was the ongoing restoration and expansion of the park: a feature that didn’t go unnoticed. “I like the fact that they’re restoring the old buildings … I like to see the community taking advantage and learning something,” Ronald Nye, a festival attendee, said.
The event’s festivities included four local restaurants serving lima bean recipes for guests, showing their delicious potential. “I like to eat [lima beans] now … I was asking my wife to dig up some lima bean recipes,” Nye said.
Local band Frankie and the Lima Beans returned to provide the venue with live music, accompanied by refreshments from Casa Agria and other returning booths. Kids’ activities and a lima bean bag toss invited family participation, while the Oxnard Historic Farm Park booth sold posters, books and locally-grown bags of lima beans. Rosemary Tobin, another attendee of the festival, came specifically to buy her own beans. “I got my bag of lima beans,” she said excitedly. “I couldn’t wait for September to come to the Lima Bean Festival.”
“Ventura County has grown lima beans longer than the other counties, and is still growing them,” Jeff Maulhardt said. Aside from being director of the event and founder of the park, he also wrote several books on the local history of lima beans, such as “Central and Southern California Lima Beans,” a fitting title for the festival.
“[I’m] running into some people I haven’t seen in a long time … people I grew up with,” Maulhardt said. As one of the founding agricultural families of the region, the Maulhardts share a long history with the crop. “Lima beans brought us back,” he said.
Events like the Lima Bean Festival mix local history and community fun in a unique way, allowing stories to be shared, good food to be eaten and friends to be made. The Oxnard Historic Farm Park is open every Tuesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon and welcomes all visitors to come learn something new about Ventura County.
