In 1947, Frank and Bernice Aguilar got married and started a  50 acre farming operation of plums, pears, and peaches in Penryn, California where they still live and manage the orchard along with their son Tom. 

Early in the 1950’s a tree disease came to Placer County and killed the pear trees all over the region. It just took a few days to turn a healthy tree into a brown and wilted dead tree, and there was no cure. All the farmers in the Placer County area, then known as the fruit basket of the nation, had to pull out all the dead trees and burn them, hoping this would stop the disease. In 1956, Frank and Bernice decided to end growing pears, peaches, and plums.

Encouraged by their friend, Frank Porier, they started planting mandarins. It made sense, they already had some mandarin trees and other citrus that had been planted by Welsh settlers in the 1880's and were producing well. By 1957 all the other fruit trees had been removed and mandarin trees were being planted. This continued through 1964 until the 20 acre orchard was complete.

Life was rough during these years they had two children in school, Susan and Tom who helped Frank work on the tree's after school,  Bernice was able to get a job with the State of California at Dewitt Center in Auburn working with Medical Records that helped supplement their income until the trees started to produce.

As the years past and the mandarin trees grew well, the trees started to produce some of the sweetest fruit.  However, it was virtually unknown to most of the local consumers so it was shipped to a Sacramento wholesaler and given away to local residents to educate them on its, sweet flavor, easy peeling and high quality.

Soon people discovered the mandarin and started buying them for gifts and sending them to family and friends out of the area, sales grew and Placer County started to be discovered for it's mandarins. Life at the orchard was getting good again. At least for awhile...

In 1972 during harvest, when the days are short and cold, the December forecast called for freezing  temperature.  That night it got so cold water pipes froze, irrigation ponds froze, and mandarin trees froze. The next day, water pipes that froze and leaked could be replaced, ponds thawed without damage, but hundreds of mandarin trees died. Not all the trees died, there was one here, two over there, and five by the barn had survived.

Replanting them started that Spring along with an overhead irrigation system. The overheard system worked not only as irrigation but also as frost control. The following years the frost came again and again but this time the mandarin trees where protected.

Today Frank and Bernice are producing the highest quality  mandarins with the help of their children and grandchildren...Life is good at Mandarin Hill Orchards, come by and see us and make some of your own history!