Owned by: Kurt and Carol Albrecht
Sales Manager: Chris Kerston
Location: Oroville, CA

Products Sold at the Co-op: Extra Virgin Mission Olive Oil (both in bulk and 375ml glass bottles), Grassfed Beef and Grassfed Goat (both Animal Welfare Approved http://www.animalwelfareapproved.org/ and Certified Predator Friendly http://www.predatorfriendly.org/ ), Pasture Raised Eggs from hens fed organically, Heirloom Stonefruits, Heirloom Fruit Jams

Other Products: We also have pastured free-range organically fed whole roasting chickens which we sell in the Spring and the Fall. In the fall we have olives for home curing available and classes on how to cure them. We also usually have a batch of grassfed beef jerky made up in the summer. We have wool from shetland sheep which we have spun into multiple shades of undyed yarn. In the past we have also made and produced a raw pet food from our grassfed beef. That will probably start back up next year unless we had a big order to make a batch this year. We are a small soap and lotion company that opened its doors in 2009. Our soaps, lotions and creams are made of goat milk. There are so many benefits of using goat milk for skin care. We encourage you to visit our website to learn more about the benefits of goat milk and using handmade skin care products.

Product Guidelines: Though we aren't certified, all of our methods meet organic standards. We also have a strong dedication to sustainable practices working to minimize inputs wherever possible and to promote symbiotic self sustaining systems many of which are based on permaculture principles.

The farm was originally started by a group of UC Berkeley Professors and a handful of UNR professors around the turn of the last century. They were doing research on Mission Olives, a variety that the California missions had planted because they were good at making oil and for curing to make eating olives. The group's first farm manager was Del Chaffin who bought up neighboring pieces of land and eventually bought much of the research land. So we have one of the largest old growth olive orchards in production in the U.S.

We manage the farm different than most places. Not only are the trees all organically farmed, but we use the livestock as land management tools to cause various desired impacts. We use the cows and sheep to mow and keep the orchard floors clean of tall grasses. We use the chickens to keep bug populations in check and to deposit their high nitrogen manure. And we use the goats to do light pruning and handle invasive weeds. Animals are constantly being moved to new areas on the farm with the use of solar portable electric fences and portable water trailers. We have now been farming this way for about 10 years. Utilizing these symbiotic relationships between the livestock and the crops allows us to keep the tractors parked practically year round. We currently consume approximately 85% less fuel than we did before we started to employ the livestock's various specialties in the orchards. It also means we get more crops per acre so we're not only minimizing inputs but increasing production per acre.

Website: www.chaffinfamilyorchards.com
E-mail: chris_kerston@chaffinfamilyorchards.com
Phone: 530-533-1676