Cesar Mora is drawing crowds to his small orchard in central California, where he’s handing out buckets of free white nectarines—rather than harvesting them for sale—while a legal fight plays out over who is allowed to market the variety he grows.

Mora, who has spent years cultivating “Monalise” white flesh nectarines, says a major produce company claimed exclusive rights after he signed an agreement in 2017. He contends he fulfilled his obligations but was never able to make money from the arrangement, and that the marketer later blocked his efforts to sell the fruit elsewhere. Mora says he received cease-and-desist letters and that, when he tried to go back, the company rejected him—leaving him, in his view, with no choice but to let the crop go to waste.

Instead, Mora posted videos online explaining his decision and began giving away the fruit for free. ABC7 reported that he has been distributing more than 125,000 pounds of nectarines this season, with estimates that thousands of people have visited the orchard to pick them up. Many visitors said they don’t want to see food rot when it’s ripe and ready to eat.

The company, according to statements reported by ABC7, maintains that it honors grower commitments and protects the proprietary programs that give value to grower partners, and that it believes the contractual terms support its position. Litigation over the matter is ongoing, and a trial date was reported as July 20.

While Mora’s giveaway continues, the dispute highlights a simmering tension in agricultural contracting: what growers can do when they believe they’re locked into relationships that limit their ability to sell, and how marketers defend arrangements they say protect their product programs and supply chain.