The Thacher Family

Friend’s Ranches
Growers and Packers of Ojai Citrus
www.friendsranches.com
FriendsRanches@aol.com

Our family has grown Ojai Pixie tangerines for several decades after Anne’s father, Elmer Friend, planted a few trees as an experiment. The Pixie trees grew well, and when Emily and George were young they would consume much of the crop before the fruit could make it to market. Following in his dad’s footsteps, little Matthew at 15 months can consume 5 Ojai Pixies at one sitting. Anne, who is a fabulous cook, bakes Ojai Pixie tangerine tarts and cakes with Pixie zest and juice, while Emily likes to put peeled Ojai Pixies in her salads.

Fortunately we now grow over 10 acres of Ojai Pixies, so there is enough to share with you! Pixie season is a busy time for us as we pack and ship our Ojai Pixies as well as some of the other Ojai Pixie growers’ fruit in our small packing house.

In addition to selling our tangerines wholesale, we attend four farmers markets in Southern California every week year-round. We thank you for your interest in Ojai Pixies, and we hope you find our fruit as delicious as we do!!

Please visit our website, and find Delicious Ojai Pixies available by mailorder!

Jim Churchill and Lisa Brenneis

Churchill Brenneis Orchard
Jim Churchill and Lisa Brenneis
www.tangerineman.com
jrchurchill@earthlink.net

Jim Churchill and Lisa Brenneis have been growing Ojai Pixie Tangerines since 1980. We got into the business because Jim's dad inherited some money from his mother and, having a life-long distrust of the stock market, used it to plant an avocado orchard in the early 70's.

Jim, having a yen to live in Ojai where he grew up, came back to run the orchard in about 1978. By 1980 what the Churchills had was lots of low-value avocado trees that had become infected with a fatal fungus and so, observing all the Valencia and Navel oranges all around him but not wanting to grow for Sunkist, Jim went looking for citrus that he could sell himself.

Jim says, "I've always liked tangerines; one day I tasted a Pixie tangerine over at Tony Thacher's place and thought it was one of the best things I'd ever tasted”. I asked Tony if he sold them and he said that he only had a few trees, and by the time he was done picking his Dancy tangerines his kids had always eaten all the Pixies.

That seemed like a pretty strong endorsement to me, so I went and planted a bunch of trees in the blind faith that I'd be able to sell them. In the way that God or fate sometimes arranges things for the innocent and naive, it has turned out that we have been able to sell them.

(A major tip of the hat also to Bill Fujimoto of the Monterey Market in Berkeley, California: Bill cultivates farmers with the same care that farmers cultivate their crops, and without him it's possible that Ojai Pixies wouldn't ever have found their market.)

Somewhere in there Jim and Lisa met and got married, and now Lisa takes time off from her day job (go ahead, look her up on the web if you're interested) and does long range planning, marketing strategy and promotion, and art direction for Ojai Pixie Tangerines and the people who grow them.

We feel privileged to have the opportunity to grow food that people like to eat. It makes for a satisfying life, albeit not as lucrative as being a CEO. We thank you for your support and interest, and welcome your comments at jrchurchill@earthlink.net or www.tangerineman.com.

Larry and Pat Hartmann

The Hartmann Ranch
Larry and Pat Hartmann

We live in a 135 year old farmhouse on this 9 acre property. We have eight children and eleven grandchildren. All of them help with the family farm. Over the years we have grown walnuts here and had a family run choose-and-cut Christmas Tree Farm with over 8000 Monterey Pine trees. Now we have planted the property to Pixie Tangerine Trees. We chose Pixie’s because we love to eat them and figured others would too! Our slogan says it all “Sweet, Petite, Great to Eat.”

This is our favorite crop of all. We enjoy growing and, yes, eating our sweet delicious Ojai Pixies right off the tree. Our friends and neighbors love them too. In the spring, when our trees are bowed down under the weight of the bright orange tangerines, they trade us fresh eggs and freshly caught fish for bags of Ojai Pixies. We sell some Pixies to the famous Ranch House Restaurant in town where they use this Ojai specialty in fruit compotes and lobster dishes..

Thanks for buying our Ojai Pixie Tangerines. We enjoy growing them just for you.

Shore Fruit Stand

Shore's "Timber Canyon Ranches"
Ben Shore
reevescr@pacbell.net

Shore's "Timber Canyon Ranches" is a family owned farming operation established in 1965 to grow citrus and avocados. Our farms are in Santa Paula and Ojai.

We planted our first Pixie Tangerine Tree in 1996 after tasting the delicious fruit grown by Friends Ranches in Ojai. Since 1990 we have participated in the Ventura Certified Farmers Markets. We believe that direct marketing is beneficial to both the grower and consumer.

We are advocates of the Salad Bar School Lunch Program and sell to the Ventura School District.

One of our orchards is C.C.O.F. certified organic. We are sensitive to good environmental practices.

The Shore Packing Company located in Santa Paula packs specialty fruits for Timber Canyon Ranches and other growers.

For more information contact Ben Shore: reevescr@pacbell.net

Three Sisters' Orchard

Three Sisters’ Orchard
Ojai Pixie Tangerine Growers
Jimruch@ojai.net

Sandi Ruch grew up on an orange ranch owned and managed since the 1930s by her parents, Sam and Christine Barrett. Sandi, her husband Jim, and their three daughters, Julia, Laura and Sara are now partners, growing Ojai Pixie Tangerines and many other fruit trees on their ranch at the end of Boardman Road near Black Mountain.

They also manage their property to restore the native oak/sycamore/grass woodland and to provide habitat for a wide variety of wildlife from deer and quail to owls, bobcats, coyotes, many species of birds and an occasional bear who drops by to sample the tangerines!

They find it challenging to produce quality fruit for sale while, at the same time, fitting the orchard into the natural environment, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Thanks for your interest in Ojai Pixies!

Robert Calder Davis, Jr.

Crooked Creek Ranch
Robert Calder Davis, Jr.
rcd2@jetlink.net

A Man Out Standing in His Field

It was just after the freeze of ’37 that Mother and Dad and my sister moved to Ojai and Dad started farming Crooked Creek Ranch. Over half the trees had died during the freeze so over half the existing ranch was planted to Valencia Oranges and the rest was kept in navels. In 1938 dad sent a whole box car of navels to a grocery store in Cedar Rapids Iowa, where, accounts have it, they were an immediate sell out.

I was born in 39, Mom died in 40, the war came. Labor was scarce and hard to keep. Dad had to get rid of Hester and Mrs. Phelps, the two milk cows, because no one knew how to milk anymore. But the Valencias kept growing and Ojai became known for high quality fruit, and Dad’s was the best. It was packed and shipped by the “Ojai Orange Association” a cooperative packing house affiliated with Sunkist.

I grew up and went to college, majoring in “Fruit Industries”. After a stint in the USAF, I and my bride returned to the ranch in 1967 and started to work with my Dad. I am not saying it was easy, but it was rewarding and the ranch prospered. We planted 10 more acres of Valencias Our Valencias were still sought after fruit and commanded a premium in the marketplace.

Dad died in 1980. We expanded the property by 20 acres in 1983 and acquired Thacher Creek Ranch in 1987, which had lemons on it, so we were starting to diversify (a little). In 1992, we partnered with Tony and Anne Thacher (see Friend's Ranches) and purchased McNell Creek Ranch, which was 2/3 Valencias and 1/3 navels.

History was repeating itself, our son Rob, graduated from USC and came back to the ranch to work with us. In 1998 he bought Dron Creek Ranch which had grapefruit, avocadoes and Valencias, and last year he partnered with us to pick up yet another property, San Antonio Creek Ranch which has Valencias and lemons.

But, through the years, the acceptance of Valencias in the marketplace has declined and both navels and grapefruit have not been financially viable, so most of the navels and all of the grapefruit, and 20% of the Valencias have been converted to Pixies, nature’s candy, or late navel varieties and the avocado acreage has also been expanded.

Today we are farming over 200 acres of citrus and over 20 acres of that is pixies, but they are all young and we do not expect full production for another 10 years.

Mike and Mark Etchart

Etchart Ranch
The Etchart Family

Etchart Ranch is located on Maricopa Highway at the mouth of Matilija Canyon. The grove, on fifty acres of gentle to steep south-facing slopes, is almost always frost-free. Historically, the ranch produced oranges and lemons as early as 1901; fruit was marketed with the box label, Meiners Ranch, Nordhoff, California.

In 1942, Michel and Marina Etchart purchased the property (he a Basque immigrant and she a descendant of early Californios); they moved from Santa Barbara with their two sons, Bob and Will. The Etcharts continued the citrus and avocado operation into the 1980's, marketing the fruit through Pure Gold, Sunkist and Calavo co-ops.

In 1987 Will Etchart acquired sole ownership of the ranch after retiring from a thirty-year career in public secondary education. A major objective was to cease dependence on cooperatives and engage in more direct marketing, and most importantly, to seek niche markets with specialty citrus, avocados and other subtropical fruits. He sought advice from several sources and planted a variety of citrus and avocados. One friend, April Jensen, said, "plant some Pixies", and he did. He was a fixture at the Santa Barbara farmers market for over 15 years with his new offerings, and also sold fruit to many local grocery stores. He had a loyal customer base and enjoyed chatting and engaging directly with those that loved his fruit.

Sadly, Will passed away in April of 2005. His physical presence will be missed, but his spirit will live on at the ranch, and in all of those who knew him. Today, Etchart Ranch consists of 11 acres of specialty citrus and avocados: Pixie, Satsuma, Gold Nugget, and Tahoe Gold mandarins, Moro blood oranges, Minneola tangelos, Cara Cara navels, pummelos, guayavas and Hass and Fuerte avocados. The grove is managed and operated by Will's sons Mike and Mark, and fourth-generation helpers at markets. The fruit is sold at farmers markets in Ojai and Santa Barbara, retail stores in Ojai and Santa Ynez Valley, and direct sales at the ranch. Hass avocados are marketed through Mission Produce.
Come visit us at the markets or call us directly at 805-646-2538.

The Etchart Family

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