Ojai Pixie Tangerines: An Epic Crop Is on the Way!

When The FruitGuys called farmer Emily Ayala of Friend’s Ranches on February 20, her team was gearing up to harvest an enormous crop of Ojai Pixie tangerines. 

“It’s more than twice as big as last year, which was quite a small crop,” she told us, surveying her orchard while we spoke. She estimated that she and her fellow Pixie growers in California’s Ojai Valley would bring in six million pounds of their famously sweet citrus in March. 

“Multiply six million by five, and that’s how many Pixies you get,” she said. “Thirty million little Pixies!”

The Epic Pixie Crop of 2025

Emily expects this harvest to be so large that she gave it a name: The Epic Pixie Crop of 2025. She thinks it will be the valley’s biggest Pixie haul since at least 2021. 

“Each tree is so loaded with fruit that the individual fruits are smaller, so it will be a year of smaller–sized Pixies, which always taste better than the big giant Pixies,” she said. “I’m always trying to get people to eat more small Pixies, anyway—that’s why they have their name, really.” 

Pixies are renowned for their tiny size and sweet, juicy flavor. Each bite has just a hint of acid because of the Ojai Valley’s unique microclimate. The valley is tucked against the coast of southern California, just north of Ventura and northwest of Los Angeles, and its hot days and cool nights help the fruit at Friend’s Ranches develop its intense flavor.  

Why So Many Ojai Pixie Tangerines?

Ojai Pixie tangerines are a type of mandarin, and they’re an alternate–bearing crop. That means that since last year’s Pixie haul was on the small side, the odds were good for a bumper crop this year. Emily told The FruitGuys that the weather has also both helped and hurt the fruit’s odds. 

On the one hand, the trees got very little rain this year—just six inches since October 1, when the “rainy season” usually starts. The same high winds that fueled the Los Angeles wildfires in January also swept through the orchards of Friend’s Ranches and its fellow Pixie growers, knocking their fruit to the ground. Emily said one grower friend lost a third of their Pixies in a particular orchard to the wind. 

On the other hand, 2023 and 2024 were both wet years—in the case of 2024, so wet that it was a struggle to access some orchards. That moisture gave the trees’ health a boost for 2025. 

“We got two good winter rains after a long drought, so their root systems expanded in 2023 and 2024, and now, they’re able to hold their crop much better because the trees are healthy,” she said.

Ojai Goes Crazy for Its Famous Fruit

Pixie season kicks off in early March, hits its peak in April, and winds down in May and June. Here at The FruitGuys, our mouths have been watering for Pixies since January! We celebrate the season by adding them to our California fruit mixes and selling them by the case to offices and schools. But in the Ojai Valley area, locals go all–out to celebrate Ojai Pixie tangerines. 

“April is known as Ojai Pixie Month, and there’s something happening every weekend around Pixies, starting with our local brewery. They’re making their Ojai Pixie Citrus IPA beer again, and there’s a Pixie Day celebration in the park one Saturday. We’ll do some kind of a contest—last year, it was a peeling contest,” Emily said. 

That just scratches the surface of the tangerine shenanigans! This year, Emily and her fellow Pixie growers are also marketing Pixies as an alternative to Easter eggs. 

“Eggs are so expensive that at a Pixie grower meeting yesterday, we said that we think people should paint Pixies, not eggs! The little ones fit right in the egg cartons,” she said. 

Snag Juicy Ojai Pixie Tangerines for Your Office 

Ojai Pixie tangerines are a truly special fruit, grown on family farms and available for just a few months each year as a sendoff to citrus season. We can’t wait to add them to our mixes in March and will offer them by the case for delivery to help support Emily and her family. Click here to order these gorgeous fruits for your office before their short and sweet season ends.