Sunkist® stories, articles & musings

In the Santa Clara Valley, where citrus groves stretch toward the base of the hills and mornings still smell like fresh air and irrigation water, Tom Mayhew stands in front of his grandparents’ 1920s farmhouse — a landmark of family history and a reminder of how deeply his roots run in this valley.

Tom is a third‑generation citrus grower, but the Mayhew family story in Fillmore stretches back more than a century. His grandparents moved to the area in the early 1920s, establishing in dairy before transitioning into oranges. They raised cattle, grew corn and tomatoes to sell around town, and farmed wherever opportunity called — even working land over the hill in Moorpark. The family home they built nearly 100 years ago is still standing, now lived in by Tom’s daughter and son‑in‑law.

“I grew up just down the street, but I was here all the time,” Tom says. “This ranch was my world.”

Farming Through the Generations

Tom’s father was born on the property in 1923 and worked across every corner of the farm — from dairy chores to citrus. After college, he became a produce inspector at the Oregon–California border, later spending most of his career managing a Sunkist lemon packing house in Santa Paula. While Tom’s siblings chose other paths, he and one brother stayed close to the land, working in packinghouses through high school and college.

Over the years, Tom watched farming evolve from furrow irrigation to dragline sprinklers to today’s micro‑sprinklers. The modernization wasn’t always easy — his grandfather was “old school,” content with doing things the way they’d always been done. But Tom saw the opportunity to bring the ranch forward while honoring its history.

Today, he continues the tradition from a different vantage point: as the Director of Grower Relations & Retention at Limoneira Company, coordinating harvests across the Coachella Valley and San Joaquin Valley and working directly with growers to move fruit from the field to the packinghouse.

A Long Relationship with Sunkist

The Mayhew connection to Sunkist spans nearly the entire lifetime of the co‑op’s presence in the region. Tom’s grandfather joined the Fillmore Citrus Association (later Fillmore Piru) in the 1930s, marketing fruit through Sunkist long before the brand became a household name.

Tom remembers small but iconic touches from his childhood that defined the brand’s presence in his life — especially one tradition:

“Every Christmas, my dad would hand out Sunkist fruit gems to everyone we knew. Boxes and boxes of them. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

After decades with Oxnard Lemon Company (also a Sunkist house), Tom experienced a transition when Limoneira acquired Oxnard and briefly operated independently. Now, with Limoneira rejoining Sunkist as a marketing cooperative, he sees renewed stability and optimism for citrus growers of all sizes.

“Sunkist has kept our community solid,” Tom says. “It’s been a stabilizing force in an industry that’s changed a lot.”

Why Sunkist Still Matters

For Tom, advocating for the Sunkist brand is simple — it represents craftsmanship, care, and family-scale agriculture.

“If someone asked about the difference between Sunkist and independent fruit, I’d tell them: choose Sunkist. It’s been cared for properly. The quality shows.”

He sees the co-op as the last stronghold for small to mid-size family farms, offering market stability and fair representation in a world where giant corporations dominate shelf space.

“We’re just small family farmers trying to make a living,” he says. “Most people don’t realize that.”

And that’s why being part of a cooperative matters — growers like Tom don’t have to navigate the market alone. They have a community, a shared brand, and a name that stands for something