Kagami Mochi for lunar new year Asia, the birthplace of citrus, celebrates Lunar New Year – an observance that speaks to us as citrus growers. Lunar new year echoes the older pattern of midwinter occasion – the whole community hopes and prays for a good growing season and successful harvest.… Read more
It’s been a wet week. Ojai and its mountains had the highest rainfall totals in all of California. Hydrographers call this precipitation pattern “flashy” – years of very low rainfall followed by a spectacular deluge when the conditions set up right. The Transverse Mountains sitting next to the Pacific. A perfect… Read more
On July 17 I was interviewed by Martha Raddatz, co-anchor of the ABC Sunday news magazine show This Week with George Stephanopoulos, about current immigration enforcement activities. Why me? I’ve been doing production agriculture for 47 years; I work and have worked a lot with Mexican farm workers, and I’m… Read more
Native Planter Episode Two: Sharing the Landscape Mike’s been farming Churchill Orchard for 12 years now! He’s developed his own game… Mike talks about learning how to farm with nature and still bring in a delicious harvest in this 3-minute video. Mike: “The oak trees take what, 5% of the… Read more
Video: Churchill Orchard’s Native Planter: Mike Sullivan Since Mike came to Churchill Orchard 13 years ago, he has steadily embroidered its citrus and avocado groves with a crazy quilt of native plants. There is a method to this madness. Meet our resident plant freak and deep thinker. Read more
I thought last week that we would be in the Ojai Sunday Farmers’ Market starting January 12, but alas it ain’t a gonna happen – some of us got a little sick, all of us had too much to do, we are affected by the tragedy of the fires in… Read more
Gael and I went to Yosemite in September and got married! Gael has been working with me at the Sunday Ojai Farmer’s Market starting now on her 5th year. Here we are last year with our friend Doug LaBarre’s 1953 Chevy 3/4T truck, which he was kind enough to let… Read more
This time of year the sun aligns perfectly with the orchard rows, making sunset a delicious time of day. The kishus are almost ready and the pixies have begun to show themselves on the trees, relieving my annual anxiety that we won’t have any fruit for you all. Happy New… Read more
When we saw it, we just went ga-ga over Rintaro’s citrus parfait. We were consumed with longing to taste it. Yes that’s some of our fruit in there. Sometimes it seems like the fruit leads a more glamorous life than we do. That’s only fair, the fruit has got all… Read more
Estimating crop size – it’s necessary, but tricky, especially in a year with a light crop. Jim Churchill runs it down…. a 3-minute short video. Read more
We just noticed – January 2024 is the 20th Anniversary of the birth of our little “Little Wonder” Kishu mandarin brand. It kinda snuck up on us. But we thought we would take a moment and celebrate the little guy. Kishu mandarin has a history far older than its rebranding… Read more
It’s time to do a little roundup of the nice articles that have made us a part of the fruit lover’s world. We’re grateful to these writers and editors. Some of you are here because of them. Shoutout to David Karp, Ruth Reichl, José Andres, Lisa Morehouse, Kit Stolz, Sarah… Read more
We had a block of Pixie trees that turned out to be growing on the wrong rootstock. Turns out that the wrong rootstock for Pixies is a good rootstock for Kishus. So we are grafting – or “topworking” – them over to Kishus. Yes, more Kishu trees. Grafting? Yes –… Read more
Our friends at Ventura Spirits have been incorporating our Pixies into their excellent Wilder Gin for some time now. We’re delighted to be an ingredient in the Wilder. Ventura Spirits has just released a Pixie Collins – you can see their handiwork here: https://venturaspirits.com/products/pixie-collins Read more
When creeks rise in southern California, dry beds become turbulent torrents. We put together a little video to show how storm flows look in the East End of Ojai. https://vimeo.com/788758343 Nikos, born in the drought, gets his first glimpse of Ojai’s waterways in full flood. The Ojai Valley is 100%… Read more
A week of serious storms approaches from the Pacific. Winter rain looms large in our history. We need it, and yet… A very very hard rain can end Kishsu season just by beating the delicate skins until they bruise or break. We get a lot of exercise trying to preserve… Read more
Fall is a wonderful time at Churchill Orchard. Summer is over – summer’s a hard time at the orchard, hot and kinda dull, with lots of repetitive walking of irrigation lines and checking on gopher traps. In the fall, after the heat breaks, all kinds of things start happening. *… Read more
April is a glorious and fragrant time in the orchard. Fruit and flowers abound, and the air is delicious. April is also harvest time for Pixies, and most of our other varieties, so it’s the busiest time. Here are some pictures of the beautiful bloom – we smile as we hustle… Read more
Same Kishus, More Folks – we sold out in 5 hours. Why? Read on. 2nd Feb 2022 We’ve heard from a number of Kishu customers and prospective customers who missed the window for Kishu ordering this year. We sent the Kishu email alert at 8:30 am Saturday Jan 22 –… Read more
Many of you are new to Churchill Orchard and our little deal – let us introduce ourselves. We specialize in seasonal citrus and avocado varieties, which means our offerings change as things come into season. We’re getting ready for our 2022 season. Our mail order program runs January through May, and our… Read more
I’m not a regular poster on social media, not even on my own website. But it’s raining! You have no idea how existential the drought is for us – even worse if it’s not drought but change of climate, from Mediterranean to Desert. That’s going to mean the end of… Read more
April 1 We head into the heart of Pixie and Hass avocado season. Most of our acreage is planted to these two varieties. This is the season of larger picking crews and 1000-lb bins. Read more
20th Mar 2021 Momentarily bucolic — dawn at the orchard. The organic Kishu season has ended at Churchill Orchard, and the organic Pixie season has begun. Kishu season was kind of a project – we got that lovely write-up in the Wall Street Journal in mid-December, right as we were starting a… Read more
Jan 7, 2021 We’ve been hearing from many of you wondering if there are Kishu mandarins for sale this year. Yes, Kishus are coming. We hope to open ordering in late January, but the fruit makes the final call. We have to limit our sales this year – it’s a… Read more
OUR KISHU MANDARINS RETURN LATE JAN 2021 – OUR CERTIFIED ORGANIC OJAI PIXIES AND HASS AVOCADOS COMING MARCH 2021. Please sign up for our email list if you want us to alert you when the 2021 fruit is ready to ship. Thanks everybody! Sign up for our email alert list.… Read more