The Best Smell

From the Fields - Thaddeus

There are a handful of smells that hold a special place in my heart. Among them is the rich, musty fragrance emitted by dry soil getting its first drops of water.  Another signature scent is the sweet aroma of carrots the hangs over a carrot field as it is being harvested and yet another favorite farm smell is the tomato smell transferred from a sticky tomato plant to your hands (which doesn’t wash off).

But the smell that holds the most special place in my heart, perhaps because it was first pointed out to me by my dear mother, is the perfume of the citrus blossom. It is intoxicating. The blossoms are long gone now. They have turned into little green marbles of fruit. In the spring, I watch the citrus trees like a hawk, waiting for the delicate clusters of white flowers to emerge from the tree so that I can bury my nose into them, breathing in the sweet smell, experiencing the beauty of our existence in nature.

In the cycle of a citrus tree’s life, the step that comes before that smell, in the heart of spring, is the planting of new citrus trees. This obviously only happens once in the course of the many years in a citrus tree’s life, but it is like our own day of birth. It must come before all the other things can happen.

We have added another satsuma mandarin orchard to our farm because each year we have seen the demand for these early mandarins grow so much that we are unable to get even our Farm Fresh To You customers enough of the fruit in the month of October.


As farmers, we face the issue that planting and caring for these orchards until they begin to yield fruit (5 years) is costly and often requires borrowing money. As such, several years ago our farm started a Green Loan Program, an innovative program that connects farmer and consumer by allowing our customers to participate in a mutually-beneficial investment partnership. 

In simplified terms, qualified individuals can loan our farm money through our Green Loan Program. We then use the capital to bring new farm projects, like a new satsuma orchard, to reality. Investors can choose if they would like to receive a variable annual interest rate in cash or in Farm Fresh To You credits. Licensed through the California Department of Corporations as a DPO (direct private offering), our Green Loan Program is a legitimate way to invest in your food system. Through the DPO, we accept loans ranging from $2,000 to $50,000.

If you would like more information, please email my team at greenloan@farmfreshtoyou.com. We will get you information and coordinate a series of informational sessions about the program that I will host. This is a legitimate and secure way to let your money grow while enabling our genuine and sustainable farm to grow - let’s grow together!

Bringing Home a Baby Satsuma Tree

Have you ever wanted to grow your own farm fresh mandarins? We have a limited supply of baby Owari Satsuma Mandarin trees, the same ones that we recently planted on the farm. These ever greens are 18 months old and will be delivered to your door in a 10” x 4” x 4” pot.

Your baby Satsuma tree will grow faster if they don’t have blossoms or fruit. Some people choose to remove the first two years of blossoms so that the tree can focus its energy on growing. But if you decide that you don’t want to do that, your baby Satsuma will still grow-up just fine.

Simply plant your tree in full sun, water weekly during the hot months and fertilize once or twice a year with an organic citrus blend from your local hardware store. If you choose to plant your Satsuma in a large pot (24 inches in diameter), it may need to be fertilized a little more, two to three times during the spring and summer.

Your baby tree, if planted in the ground, will grow to be 6’ tall and 6’ wide by the time it is full grown. Trees planted in a pot will be a little more dwarf in size. Your first harvest should be ready just in time for Thanksgiving.

How To Add A Baby Owari Satsuma Mandarin Tree To Your Delivery: CSA members - head on over to our online Farm Stand Market to customize your upcoming delivery. Market is open from noon on Thursday until 10 am, 2 days before your scheduled delivery day. After you confirm your produce items, click the orange button "Confirm and Continue To Other Farm Products" to add the products to your delivery.

Not part of our farm family? Find out if we deliver to your neighborhood.

Get Them Planted!

From the Fields - Thaddeus

It is the middle of summer planting, and the beginning of the fall planting schedule. The white board in my office with a “chickenscratch” to-do list is growing faster than items can be crossed out. First thing in the morning, I find myself by the creek, marking out a small, buried main line and putting flags where the risers can go so that Ricardo can get the irrigation system installed. This irrigation system has nothing to do with growing the crops; it didn’t even make it onto my to-do list, but it has been nagging at me for over a month. The ground is sandy. It runs along the creek and for the past years, we have been fighting noxious weeds. The only permanent solution is to get the area established with good plants – native grasses, shrubs and trees.

Those native grasses, shrubs and trees have been sitting by the office for over a month, approaching two months. In the winter, when things were slow and the most important thing on my list was rehabilitating that wild area by the creek, I put an order in for the plants. I put them next to the office so I wouldn’t forget about them. Days stacked to weeks that rolled into months, and the plants were still there. The final straw was when I went to pick up a tray of deer grass to examine it, and it was stuck to the ground. Its roots had grown through the plastic cells, past the gravel and firmly embedded themselves into the soil. Yup, time to get these in the ground before it really is too hot.

The wild area is one of my favorite places on the farm. In it live the community of flora and fauna that have always been dear to my heart. It is in this location, where the creek flows and old cottonwoods grow tall that I am reminded of our farm’s responsibility to foster a diverse ecosystem. It is the acre oak preserve with trees a few feet tall where I learned the valuable lesson to never ever plant native plants until a drip irrigation system is set up. As I wandered around, laying out the system, imagining how great this will be in a few years, I had to chuckle about myself and how well I know myself. In the spring, when I ordered those plants, I knew I was overloading the early summer – I did it anyway.

Check out the progress on my Instagram (@farmerthaddeus) and while you are there follow our company’s Farm Fresh To You account (@farmfreshtoyou).