AGRICULTURAL PAST MEETS PRESENT

For the past 150 years, Butte County has been an agricultural leader in California, with innovative ideas and farmers with a deep respect for the land.

With agricultural roots reaching back to the earliest innovations in California farming, Butte County today is still home to farms, large and small, carrying on the legacy of quality and innovation that has existed in Butte County for more than 100 years, producing some of the state’s best olive oils, fruit, rice, and nuts.

Chico’s founder, John Bidwell, is known as “a founding father of modern California agriculture.” He championed diversified commercial agriculture, pioneered the growth of the almond and walnut industry, and grew his ranch into a model of California’s farm industry in the second half of the 19th century.

Long after John Bidwell, almonds and other tree nuts continue to flourish in Butte County. For five generations, Sohnrey Family Foods in Oroville has been growing almonds, walnuts, rice, and prunes and selling high-quality consumer products while focusing on stewardship of the lands they tend. They generate renewable energy for their farm and food manufacturing facility through two solar panel systems and use drones and orchard moisture sensors to reduce their water usage, among other conservation efforts.

You can also buy almonds and other nut products from Maisie Jane’s California Sunshine Products. A third-generation almond-farmer’s daughter, Maisie Jane began roasting nuts in the family kitchen at 17, and the company grew from a college project into a sustainable business. For a seasonal treat, head to Harrison’s California Chestnuts to buy chestnuts directly from the growers during the fall harvest.

Olive oil production in Oroville is thanks to another 19th century agriculture pioneer: Freda Ehmann, an Oroville farmer who launched California’s olive industry by perfecting a process to preserve the fruit for shipment in 1898. Today, multiple local olive oil producers build on Ehmann’s legacy. Lodestar Farms offers award-winning olive oils from their Mission olive groves with a distinct regional flavor. Fertile volcanic soil combined with a Mediterranean climate makes Oroville an ideal location for the Mission olives, with 75% of their production in the country located in the Oroville area, including from other local favorites Butte View Olive Oil and TLC Olive Oil.

In Oroville, you’ll also find the Mother Orange Tree, the oldest living orange tree in Northern California, planted in 1856. The success of its planting set off a rush to plant more orange trees in the second half of the 19th century. Today, the local industry that