A day in the mandarin orchards

Wintertime in our region means bountiful citrus in the form of a delicious little superfruit called the mandarin orange. I'll eat three in a row without hesitation every day in December. No joke. Last year, Andrew and I checked out the Mountain Mandarin Festival for the first time, and this weekend, we toured a few farms during Orchard Days. Mandarin farmers in five towns open up their storefronts, barns, homes and fields to the public, to offer fresh fruit by the pound and other mandarin goodies like mandarin-enhanced honey, chocolate sauce, barbecue sauce, olive oil, you name it...

View the grower map HERE, and read on to see our adventure...



Our first stop was Highland Orchard in Penryn. The early afternoon was dripping with the color orange. The orchards were aglow with mandarins, like bright orange Christmas ornament bulbs hanging from emerald leaves. Andrew did a good job blending in with that classic North Face jacket... ;) 

I tried to blend in too...not so well.

There were a few guys out in the field picking fruit...

Naturally, we joined in.

After strolling through the fields a bit, we drove down the street to Mandarin Hill Orchards, where the owners showed us their fruit-sorting machine, which they said is so old parts aren't made for it anymore. It transfers the mandarins on a conveyor belt to a spinning wheel contraption that sorts the fruit by size. Certain clients, they told us, prefer certain sized mandarins. The large mandarins, which they call “giants”, are good luck for Chinese New Year, and the medium-sized ones are snatched up by local grocers. Some may be destined for other states, some might end up in your jam. 

Our last stop of the day was Sunset Ridge Mandarins in Newcastle. On the wall of their store, they had all the poster artwork from past Mountain Mandarin Festivals. :) They also had persimmons for sale - another fall/winter fave. 

The view from the top of their 20-acre orchard was incredible – we could see all the way to the Sutter Buttes. One of the owners took us down to the front of the orchard and showed us how to snip the fruit straight from the trees, digging into the middle of the plant to find the mandarins that hadn’t been affected by frost or other elements. 

Picking fruit requires deep concentration....

  I couldn’t resist tasting one as we walked along. So juicy, plump and tangy-sweet.

Of course, we took a timer photo with some generous help from a picnic table.  

I swear that peal on the ground isn't ours...

Such a fun day!