Producer

Vic, an 80 something year-old retired excavation engineer, has been growing citrus for 14 years; he has 3 1/2 acres of navel oranges with the same amount of land devoted to satsuma mandarins. His entire family and friends help him package the fruit into bags for Stores and Schools in the Northstate packed in bags for Happy Valley Fresh.

Regarding others mandarins from that are not grown in the local area, Vic thinks he knows why they don't taste as good. "There is a lot of acreage in satsumas down in the San Joaquin Valley. They're old by the time you get them -- a lot of them are picked real green. They're gassed with [ethylene] to color them up. They're not tree-ripened like my mandarins." So that's why they're not as sweet.