Uncommon Fruits, Uncommonly Ripe & Delicious

The local market for cannery figs dried up before I was born and most of those trees were torn out.  While working at the University of California, Davis, however, I tasted some prunes on a neglected tree in a parking lot.  Their sweetness reminded me of the figs I furtively enjoyed as a boy between chores and the experience infected me with the fruit bug.  Some years later, I returned home to pursue it in earnest.

Stone fruit production on this dirt was said to be impossible.  After fracturing the hardpan of my plot with a ripper and a vintage D8 caterpillar tractor and amending it with manure, compost and minerals, I proved that it is merely very difficult.  And in keeping with family tradition, I'm not getting rich at it either.  That's why my wife and I also officiate weddings--for which I actually shave and remove my sweaty hat.  See www.LovingCelebrations.com

I produce, among others delights, Rouge du Rousillon apricots, Red Haven, Suncrest, Loring and Baby Crawford peaches, Inca and Laroda plums, Warren pears, Flanders figs, exquisite table grapes and, in my humble opinion,  the best but most finniky Pluot available: Flavor King.

Because I refuse to pick or sell unripe or unripenable fruit like that anybody can buy in a typical grocery store (or, regrettably, many farmers' markets) most of my fruits are too fragile to be shipped economically so I focus on local sales to discriminating consumers. When I pick, I place fruits directly into shallow padded boxes, ranging from about 8 to 12 pounds. They are never dumped into bags, buckets and bins as if they were potatoes.  I then sell them per pound by the box on the farm or deliver them to upscale Sacramento restaurants like Taylor's Kitchen. 

If you're interested in experiencing some truly incredible fruit, please call me at 916-712-9379.  That way, I can tell you what is ripe and schedule either a visit or a Sacramento-area delivery.

Hi, my name is Bob Waegell


I have established a mostly-organic commercial orchard-vineyard, featuring

the tastiest and hardest-to-find heirloom and modern varieties, on a small part

of the land my immigrant grandparents settled outside of Sacramento in 1925.

For them, it was to be a retreat from their urban businesses so they weren't

especially careful about soil selection.  So when my grandfather planted his

40 acres of Kadota figs, for example, he had to use dynamite to break

the hardpan for every single tree.  But those figs then helped them survive the

Great Depression and with good stewardship that dirt also produced grains,

seeds, turkeys, cattle, sheep and three generations of my family. 

Nobody got rich but nobody starved either.