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20th Anniversary – Little Wonder

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 as “Kishu” in 1880s Japan.

We encountered the Kishu in 2000 on a tour of Citrus Variety Collection conducted by Ottillia Biehr. We thought it was cute and might make a nice little Christmas snack.

So we planted 50 Kishu trees (special order, because no one was growing the Kishu), and waited for them to grow.

Bill Lisa and Kishus at Monterey Market

 

 

 

 

As soon as we had fruit, we took the  first Kishus to Bill Fujimoto at Monterey Market.

Bill had introduced our Pixie tangerines to his customers, and we thought we had another great mandarin to share.

Things went well. We planted more Kishus.

Chez Panisse took up the Kishu and people who dine there started to write nice things about it.

Things got a little out of hand. People started calling the house, wanting shipments.

We built a primitive system for taking orders (ht Formdesk!), and the Little Wonder was born.

 

 

 

Our first mail order was packed on the dining room table (no barn yet).

 

 

 

 

 

 

We entered the Logo Era, the short-lived Recipe Era (Ham a la Kishu?), the Kishu Merch Era (that Kishu apron was fire), and the Meme Era (surfing Kishu bear!)

And people kept writing nice things.

Things went (mostly) well. And here we are.

People write nice things about our fruit

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 Henry, Alejandra Borunda,  and Russ Parsons (!)

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/dining/a14751523/kishu-miniature-tangerines/

https://joseandres.substack.com/p/hey-mr-tangerine-man

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/kishu-oranges

https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=53643

Pixie People

Will the Ojai Pixie Survive?

Topwork

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 – here’s a brief introduction.

Grafting is an ancient horticultural practice where tissues of two plants are joined so that they grow together as a single plant.

The top part of the grafted plant is called the scion; the lower part is called the rootstock.

The rootstock provides the roots, anchorage, and support for the scion. Rootstock can also provide resistance to pests and diseases, or tolerance to specific environmental conditions.

The scion provides the desired characteristics of the tree, such as fruit variety, flower color, or growth habit.

The bud union is the point where the scion and rootstock are joined.

In a successful graft, the vascular tissues of the two plants grow together.

If the bud union fails, the graft will not be successful.

To topwork our Pixies into Kishus, Sam Garibay, the skilled artisan who does the actual grafting, will “scaffold” or prune the Pixie tree back, leaving only a few branches of 2-3 inch diameter or smaller. He does this some weeks before the actual grafting, and leaves at least one branch to serve as a “nurse limb”, with leaves to keep the water and nutrients flowing up into the parts of the tree what will receive the grafts.

Using a very sharp grafting knife, he then slips 1–3 pieces of Kishu budwood under the bark – so it makes contact with the Pixie cambium layer on the upper side of the remaining scaffold limbs. Paint with sealer, and cover with paper cones to protect the tender buds.

Then wait.

A few months later, we have 40 takes out of 53 trees grafted. That’s with Sam coming back to regraft two times. Some of the little sprouts are so wee and tiny that they might not make it.

If the topworking is successful, we’ve switched the tree to produce a different variety of citrus. The mature root system can push a lot of energy into those new branches, so we could be seeing more Kishus in a couple more years. It’s not an instant makeover, but puts these trees back in production in 3-4 years.

Wet Kishu Report Jan 12

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% reliant on what falls from the sky. Some folks have wells, many of us rely on the Bureau of Reclamation dam that created Lake Casitas. Either way, whether aquifer or the lake, the sources of pumpable supply have gotten dangerously low since 2005, having dipped to 29% of capacity at Lake Casitas immediately before the rains.
At Churchill Orchard, the rain fills us with contradictory emotions. We need the water, and it is truly thrilling to experience the rains. Also we have many tons of mulch on the ground and the orchard is covered with what we call “resident vegetation” (outsiders call it weeds!), so we gloat (just a little) about having very little run-off.

On the other hand, the rains are falling in the middle of kishu season, when we need to harvest the little kishu tangerines and manage our harvest volume to give ourselves the 5-6 week season we need to supply mail order, the farmers market, and wholesale.
Climatologists have been saying that average rainfall taken over a number of years is likely to remain roughly the same in southern California as it was before climate change – say, about 14″ per year in the Ojai Valley – but that the rain will come in fewer, more intense storms. And here we are: the current set of storms, while causing grief in many areas of California, including the Ojai Valley, is performing the incredibly useful service of filling up the aquifers and the creeks which are the sources of Ojai’s water.

Standard practice is to get the fruit off before the rains. Standard practice is to harvest the entire orchard in one go, then pack it and move it out. Our business model is different – we wait until the fruit is fully ripe, then we pick over the course of weeks, and pack to order.
You can’t send crews out to harvest soaking trees – getting soaked from picking is awful for the harvest crews. Also, we can’t pack wet fruit.

So we take measures: we cover the trees as best we can, to provide pickable trees in the intervals between storms.

When we do have wet fruit, which we inevitably do, we store it in the barn and run fans to dry the fruit out.

Bon appetit! We hope to be able to serve you.

Winter rains and kishus

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 the tender fruit from pounding rain and wind.
Early in the season—like now in January—we have a shot at saving the fruit.

We use these portable carports as shelters to keep the rain off.

When we run out of carports – black plastic.

And we are still in a Stage 3 drought.

 

 

 

 

Fall is a wonderful time at the orchard.

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.

* We got 1.7″ of rain the day before Election Day and on Election Day itself – sweet, slow, gentle rain that soaked in and didn’t cause any damage. And there’s still 4-5 months to go during which we might get more storms, so this rain not only makes me happy it also makes me hopeful.

* the Kishus are beginning to turn color – meaning it’s time to estimate the crop size and start measuring the sugar. We are expecting a decent harvest of kishus, so there should be an adequate supply for mail order and wholesale both.

* Also as the fruit starts to turn color, Kishu Pilferers show up. I post signs. Kishu Pilferers bring out my churlish side – churlish Churchill, that’s me.

* We ran an experiment to see if we could substitute grazing sheep for flail mowing and weedeating to control weeds.

Sheep Trials at Churchill Orchard video

* Maybe 6-7 years ago, Mrs. Mercer took out 40 acres of old valencia orange trees. She had them all piled up in enormous piles and was going to burn them. Mike got the bright idea that we should buy them, grind them up, and haul them to our orchard for mulch, and that’s what we did.

The transaction took place in late summer, and the mulch was due to be spread before Christmas of that year. Hah! But lo, a spreader has materialized over by the stacks and stacks of mulch, so maybe before Christmas of this year. It could happen.

Same Kishus, More Folks – we sold out in 5 hours. Why? Read on.

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 – and sold through 4 weeks of 2022 season Kishus by 1:30 pm.
We were caught by surprise.

Our fruit sold with astonishing speed.
If only we could grow, harvest and pack it as fast.

We will be shipping different (and delicious), fruit later in the season. Please keep an open mind to our organic Pixie tangerines, avocados, our Pages and our Oro Blanco grapefruits.

We’re not Amazon, nor the CDC — it’s just us, trying to implement a scheme that would distribute not enough fruit to too many customers.

First, we wanted to explain why we must limit our Kishu mail order supply:

Mail order Kishus are delivered on a tight and inflexible schedule.
They are slower to pack, and we often ship into serious winter weather.
We can’t sell our whole crop mailorder; we can only ship Monday and Tuesday, and we need our small crew to keep packing all week, because Kishus don’t hold on the trees, (like Pixies do).

How should we distribute the mail order Kishus we have?

Raising the price until demand falls off is not why we farm, nor who we are.
We don’t want our customer base restricted to people who can afford $300 — or $3000 — for a 9-pound box of Kishus.
We recognize that the price is already high for most people, but our pricing is tied to the cost to grow, pick and pack a small fruit that must be processed by hand, and not on a machine.

First come, first served would be most fair – many customers have asked to be “put on the waiting list” —  but does not work for Kishus.
We don’t know until harvest time how much fruit we’re able to supply –

It’s not just whether the crop survives the winter freeze, winds, and storms.
The cost of living and housing in Ojai CA has made it hard for us to find people to work in our packing operation, so the size of our staff is unknown until it’s time to open.

We’ve learned from experience that taking mail orders too far in advance can be expensive for us. Sometimes Nature has other plans for our crop, and refunding orders actually costs us money.
So we wait until we have a reasonable chance of delivering. And then we “alert” you by sending out an email.

We started selling Kishus through our online store back in 2009 and we’ve seen brisk sales before, but things have really mushroomed since the pandemic started.
Which is great for our little business, and we’re excited to try and keep up with demand.

We do have other lovely varieties coming up that don’t sell out immediately.

Thank you so very much for your interest in our fruit and for your support.

It means a lot to us.

Packing Kishus by hand in the barn Jan 2022.

2022 Season Preview

Many of you are new to Churchill Orchard and our little deal – let us introduce ourselves.

Churchill Orchard is certified organic by CCOFWe 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 offerings generally run as follows:


Kishus open for orders in late January

Yes, Kishus are coming. We have an ample crop this year.We hope to start shipping in late January, but the fruit makes the final call. We will email everybody on our mailing list when ordering opens.

Our webstore only accepts orders in season. We leave the items up all year long so you can see what we sell, but the store is “closed” most of the year. When you see “Add to Cart” on an item that means it’s available.

Orders will be shipped in the order received. We pick and pack by hand, and our weekly mail order output is about 2000 lbs per week (there are a lot of Kishus in a pound).

It’s a good idea to get your order in sooner – it helps us to have a couple of weeks of lead time to process your orders and respond to your queries.

We usually manage to ship for 4 weeks. If we still have fruit after the first round, we’ll keep shipping – as long as the fruit and the weather hold.

Visit the Kishu Mandarin product page at our webstore.


Farmers Market Mix Box in late February

We’re staying out of the Berkeley farmers market again this year.We’re short-staffed in Ojai, so something had to give.

We have a nice selection of fruit that we would have sold in the Berkeley market; we had good results last year offering our Berkeley range of citrus and avocados nationwide via our webstore.

So let’s do it again.

Here’s our Farmers Market Mix box offering:

3 lbs of our own Fuerte avocados, 3 lbs of Page tangerines,

2 lbs of our legendary Kishu mandarins, & 1 lb tree-ripe seedless Bearss lime

Nine pounds of gorgeous organic fruit – direct from our grove to your door!

We ship the avocados and citrus fresh picked, so the avocados will arrive still firm but half-ripe. Enjoy your citrus for a few days while your avocados become soft and ready to eat.

Check out the Farmers Market Mix Box in our webstore,

Seedless Kishu: This tiny heirloom mandarin, originally from China by way of Japan, is our earliest-season mandarin. Kishus are totally seedless, deliciously sweet and super-easy to peel.

Page: Deep, intense flavor which matches deep, intense rind and flesh color. Few seeds. Difficult to peel, but Page lovers cut wedges to eat or make juice. Chefs love Pages for frozen desserts because the intensity of flavor stands up to freezing and sugar.

Bearss Lime: Yellowy-green, juicy, and seedless, tree-ripe Bearss limes are a revelation.We allow our Bearss limes to get ripe on the tree, and the difference is astounding! Flavor, rind perfume, and juiciness abound.

Fuerte avocado: Before the Hass took over, this was the gold standard.Green-skinned, pear-shaped, rich and creamy. Harder to ship in bulk because of their thin skin, you won’t see Fuertes often in the stores. Our favorite avocado.

Read about our fruit varieties on tangerineman.com


Pixies and Hass Avocados in late March

Jim’s first tangerine love, the Ojai Pixie, returns in late March.Our certified organic Ojai Pixie tangerines are simply delicious—sweet, easy to peel, and absolutely seedless. Pixies store very well and retain excellent flavor for a remarkably long time. We ship Pixies in 9 and 25-lb sizes.

When the Hass are ready, we will start shipping our wildly popular Pixie Party Box – 6 lbs of our certified organic Pixie tangerines and 3 lbs of our certified organic Hass avocados. It’s a lovely spring treat. We’ll also offer 9-lb boxes of just Hass.

We ship the Hass avocados and the Pixies fresh picked, so the avocados will arrive still firm but half-ripe. Enjoy your Pixies for a few days while your avocados become soft and ready to eat.

Go to our webstore and check out our Pixies and avocados.


The Ojai Spring Fling Returns in April

In April, when our Oro Blancos are ready, it’s time to launch the Spring Fling. As we did last year, we’ll ship a 25 lb carton, and a Little Spring Fling – a 9 lb box.Juicy spring citrus in two sizes!

The Spring Fling comes with a colorful insert card featuring custom cocktail recipes using these delicious citrus treats.

Go to our webstore and check out our Pixies, Spring Fling, and cocktail recipes.

The Big Spring Fling Party Box – a dozen Oro Blancos with eight pounds of Pixies and four Vanilla Blood oranges.

Oro Blanco is a fabulous California hybrid – like grapefruit with the sugar built in. Vanilla Blood is an exotic low-acid supersweet blood orange. Pixies are in peak season in April – sweet, seedless easy to peel, and full of Ojai flavor.


The past couple of winters have been kinda unpredictable – and here we are, predicting again.

We are very grateful to you for your continued appreciation and support of our fruit.

We invite you to visit our web site where we will offer delightful TMI.

Jim Churchill & Lisa Brenneis

Churchill Orchard in the Ojai Valley

www.tangerineman.com