January 2026

The new year kicked off our peak winter season here, and we have quite a few tours already on the books.  Our citrus is ripening and soon we'll be awash in grapefruit, lemons, oranges, and tangelos.  Our weather too is nearly perfect this time of year, and we can bask in the sunshine while the rest of the country suffers in deep freeze.  Many of our tour groups are from the north, and they are especially appreciative of our winter warmth.

Not surprisingly, our various family members come for regular visits this time of year, and they will bond with the animals while loading up on fruit.  Our brood of livestock guardian dogs now numbers six, and everyone has their favorites.

We now have about 200 producing fruit and nut trees so citrus season is a time for a lot of picking.  Fortunately, all of the fruit doesn't ripen at once and we expect to have ripe citrus available to tour groups all the way through March.  We also pick a lot of our own so we do some serious juicing and freeze enough for the rest of the year.  It's a bit messy, but tree-ripened fruit juice is incomparably better to the stuff you buy at the store.

One new improvement to our tour line-up this year is the addition of Cornerstone Barbecue as our caterer of choice.  They operate several small restaurants and a food truck in the Banning/Beaumont area and have become one of the highest rated eateries in the valley.  They seem able to make almost anything, and it's all been fabulous fare so far.  We look forward to keeping them busy in the months to come.