Sunkist® stories, articles & musings

From a 19th‑century wagon journey to today’s thriving citrus ranch, Blake and Aubrey Mauritson are carrying forward a legacy built on land, family, and community.

If you ask Aubrey Mauritson where her family’s citrus story truly begins, she’ll tell you it goes back long before she was born — long before her grandparents, even. It begins in the mid‑1800s, when her great‑great‑grandparents traveled west by wagon, surviving storms, sickness, and uncertainty in search of one thing: land.

Not gold.
Not quick wealth.
Land.

They eventually arrived in Lemon Cove, a place they helped build from the ground up — founding a hotel, a store, and ultimately a community. In the early 1900s, Aubrey’s great‑grandfather Aubrey Mofit purchased the Kaweah Lemon Company, planting the roots of a citrus legacy that continues to thrive today.

And now, more than a century later, Aubrey and her husband, Blake, are the fourth generation stewarding the ranch — raising lemons and raising their family in the place her ancestors once built from scratch.

How They Got Here — A Ranch With a Century of Care

The Kaweah Lemon Company was founded in 1897 by developers in Visalia before Aubrey’s family took it over. Since then, the ranch has passed through the hands of multiple generations — each one imprinting their stewardship on the land.

Aubrey grew up in the groves, surrounded by citrus, mountains, and a tight‑knit farming community. Blake, on the other hand, came from Northern California — mountains, hunting, tree climbing — but found unexpected belonging in Lemon Cove’s rugged beauty.

“Lemon Cove feels like home,” Blake says. “The mountains, the scenery, seeing snow — it all feels right.”

Over time, Blake stepped fully into the family farming operation. Today he runs the day‑to‑day management of the Kaweah Lemon Company ranch, a responsibility he takes seriously and with pride.

A Community That Farms Together, Grows Together

For Blake and Aubrey, farming isn’t just business — it’s community.
Their kids go to school here. They support local sports. They show up for their neighbors in good seasons and bad.

“We’re a community,” Aubrey says. “People come to us all the time — asking for help, asking for opinions on local matters. We all support each other because we all want the same thing: to keep farming.”

The Mauritsons say farming can be isolating, but not in Lemon Cove. Here, neighbors share water when a line breaks. They trade knowledge. They jump into action when help is needed.

“Communities are stronger together,” Blake says. “We live here, we work here — it’s all connected.”

A Co‑Op That Feels Like Family

Being part of Sunkist amplifies that sense of connection.

“To be part of a group that’s been doing this for more than 130 years — growers of all sizes — is incredible,” Blake says. “We’re stronger together, stronger in numbers.”

Sunkist’s cooperative structure means the Mauritsons don’t compete with fellow growers — they collaborate with them.

“When times are good, we all do well. When times are bad, we pull together even harder,” Aubrey says. “Being part of the Sunkist family pushes us to have the best quality we can.”

That includes stewardship. Sustainability is more than a buzzword here — it’s a responsibility.

“We’re more productive than we’ve ever been with less,” Blake explains. “That’s the future — less environmental impact, greater impact on our community and society.”

Farming for the Next Generation — and the Next

Aubrey and Blake are raising the fifth generation of their family on this ranch. Their goal is simple:

Make sure the land is here for them — and enjoyable for them.

Their trees never stop growing, and neither does their commitment to the land.

“We’re nothing without the land,” Aubrey says. “We owe it everything — and taking care of it is how we give back.”

They use the ranch as a living classroom for their children, teaching life lessons among the citrus rows: patience, responsibility, humility, and deep gratitude.

“This is not a job,” Blake says. “It’s a lifestyle.”

Lemon Cove — A Place That Feels Like Home

Lemon Cove is wedged between mountains, the Kaweah River, and the foothills leading to Sequoia National Park. Its scenery isn’t like the flat stretches of the wider valley — it’s rugged, varied, breathtaking.

Aubrey’s favorite place on the ranch is down by the river — peaceful, shaded, timeless.

“It’s beautiful and grounding,” she says. “It’s an important part of farming here.”

And it’s why the Mauritsons feel so fortunate — to live here, to work here, and to raise their children in the same groves their ancestors planted and tended.

A Legacy Rooted in Land, Faith, and Family

For Blake and Aubrey, citrus farming isn’t just about fruit — it’s about:

• Land that sustains generations
• A co‑op that binds growers together
• Community that supports one another
• A lifestyle they want their children to love
• A lineage dating back to pioneers and wagon trails

“There is nothing safer than California Sunkist fruit,” Aubrey says. “We hold ourselves to higher standards because this land has been in our family for four generations — and we want it here for five, six, and beyond.”

As the sun sets behind the Sierra Nevada and lights up the Lemon Cove groves in gold, the Mauritson family stands exactly where generations before them have stood — tending trees, raising children, and nurturing a legacy built on care, faith, and the simple belief that we are strongest when we grow together.