Chaffin Family Orchards

Chaffin Family Orchards got its start in the early 1900s, when founder Del Chaffin bought land from his alma mater, University of California, Berkeley. Looking for a place he could grow a wide variety of fruit year round, he found the microclimate of his Oroville farm perfect for raising orchard crops, cattle, sheep and other animals in an environmentally sensitive way. “It’s an ideal location; the climate is mild all year and the soil is rich,” says Carol Albrecht, Del’s granddaughter, who runs the farm with her husband Kurt and sales manager Chris Kerston.

The Albrechts are especially proud of the way the orchards and animals are managed in harmony with nature to the benefit of the land, the animals, and the environment. According to Chris, “We use the goats to prune the orchards, cows and sheep to mow and then send in the chickens to debug and fertilize. We estimate we’ve been able to reduce our tractor use by about 85%.” Everything is farmed according to organic standards (although they are not certified), the ruminants are 100% grassfed and the family uses a rotational grazing system to keep the pastures and animals healthy.

With over 2,000 acres comprised of over 40 different orchard crops and four classes of livestock and almost the entirety of their products being direct marketed in a face to face consumer transaction, Chaffin Family Orchards is one of the few farms of their size leading the way on selling direct to the eater sustainably.