Reviews for: Chaffin Family Orchards

Sweetness of these oranges is hard to come by living in the mid-west. Wonderful.

I purchased these on Dec. 15 of this year, received them on Dec. 19, so shipping was fast. The problem is the quality of the fruit. Some were fresh, but quite a lot of them were wrinkled, and old looking with dull skins and the tell-tell black rim around the stem area, Too bad, I was so happy to have found a place to purchase fresh organic mandarins.

The Satsuma Mandarins were shipped in an unpadded cardboard box. Many of the fruits were damaged in shipment. The fruits were dry, getting old. They are not that sweet as claimed by this grower. Several were very small - like the size of a key lime. Some fruits were discolored and bad. I will never purchase fruit from this seller again. I much prefer and highly recommend the Orange Shop in Florida.

Be aware that this orchard ships the fruit crammed into an unpadded priority mail box. The fruit comes from California and we are in Michigan. When it arrived, there were four rotten ones and many that were bruised and battered to the point of needing to be eaten immediately or they would rot. The remaining fruit is good - peels easily and tastes like satsumas should. But the shipping just ruins it. It's like they don't care what condition it's in when it reaches you. Plus, the company does not offer any way to contact them online. There is a phone number you can call, but I would rather not phone people to report an issue like this. I would much prefer the option to email. I would not order from this grower again.

I finally rcvd. my much anticipated Olive delivery.. I was kept informed as to the timing and to the non delivery(too rainy etc.) Thanks. As to the delivery itself, it took 3 days shipping time.The box arrived somewhat squashed on it's sides,and may or may not have caused some fruit bruising... upon opening, the aroma was as expected, they smelled like" Olives"They were very soft, so I put in cold water right away. I did find about 1 lb very bruised and dark olives, I could not use---so to the compost to go..The bruising did penetrate to the pit Also 1 to 1.5 lbs of the olives were red-could not use for my green curing recipe I started the process today and in 3 to 4 weeks we shall see' THE FRUITS OF MY LABOR"

Thanks again------

I ordered 2 15-lb. boxes of satsumas in December to split into Christmas presents for family-- they were good, but not as sweet as I had been hoping. The boxes they are shipped in though are just no good for the contents. One of the boxes was fairly crushed along with about half the satsumas inside. We quickly took those ones out and ate them ourselves as most didn't look spoiled, but that just shouldn't happen, plus it reduced the amount we had for gift-giving by about 25%.

The fruit taste is good, but because of no packing material added to the box, the fruit took a beating during shipping and a lot of the tangerines went bad very quickly. Need to improve on packing. Thanks

Ordered on Jan12, shipping pick-up on Jan 20, received on Jan 27. The prioriy mail box was badly dented. Shipped across the country due a very cold week. Satsumas were in bad shape on arrival. Some were split open, many badly bruised, and others with damaged from the cold. 80% of the shipment was thrown away immediately. The few remaining were not great. The last 6 were thrown away today because they didn't smell right.... 4 days after receipt.

I fell in love with mandarins a few years back while living in CA, and now that I've moved back east they are hard to find. Luckily, I found them here on Local Harvest, and they are even better than the ones I first fell in love with. I bought 15 lbs. with the great deal of the free shipping. They arrived from CA at my door in Rhode Island, in two days! I finished the fruit after just over a month. No seeds and a great snack for school or work. I can't say enough great things about this fruit and this farm. Thank You!

When I received the fixed -rate USPS box it looked kind of battered. So did quite a few of the Satsumas. I figure, although I did not count or weigh, that half the Satsumas were squished to the point of being non-eatable and/or rotten. HOWEVER, what was left was supremely delicious. - The way I look at it is: I live in Colorado, where getting good citrus fruits is a crab-game. Even in organic stores the quality varies greatly. All winter long I have been relegated to buying and eating 'Cuties,' which are OK when that's all there is. Just recently I found organic Satsumas at a local health food store, which turned out as dry as can be. - Initially I was somewhat peeved at the poor shipping and consequently the poor quality of some of your Satsumas. And again, HOWEVER, I think, it's towards the end of the season, plus better packing would probably increase the cost to what I ended up paying per pound for the approximately 8 eatable pounds of Satsumas in your box anyway. By the way, the dry Satsumas I bought in Colo and chucked in the trash, were not cheap either. So after weighing the facts and knowing what I know now, I most definitely would order from you again (and will next week), because the ~ 8 pounds of eatable Satsuma are worth 40 Dollars to me. But in spite of the great taste and quality of the unblemished Satsumas, I felt that giving 5 Stars would be going overboard. And since 4 stars mean 'I really liked it,' that's a fair rating.

We ordered a 15 lb box of satsuma mandarins. They are absolutely delicious and were a big hit at Christmas. The mandarins were shipped promptly on the Monday after I ordered, as they said they would. The box was rather smashed up when it arrived so a few of the mandarins took a beating and a couple were starting to spoil, but that is probably to be expected when fresh fruit is shipped across the country. In any case, the fruit is delicious!

The mandarins are so wonderfully juicy and flavorful - much better than anything I could find in a grocery store here in the Midwest. They are also very easy to peel and every single one of them tastes good, the little ones and the big ones. I'd order again - yum!

I received my shipment of Mandarins on Friday, a week after placing my order. I am thrilled with the quality, quantity and quenching! These are absolutely the juiciest, tastiest and sweetest Mandarins I have had the pleasure to eat. I will definitely watch for Chaffin Orchards' posting next year and reorder. I just cannot tell you how wonderful these fruits are - you must try them yourself.

Although there were a few battered fruits in the box, I took into account they were shipped from California to Tennessee and the box was so full there wasn't room for additional packaging.

Thank you Chaffin Orchards for the delicious fruits.

Just got our satsumas! My 2 year old danced when we opened the box, then grabbed a "great big one" and peeled it herself. The satsuma was gone in about 30 seconds! These won't last long.

They took a bit of a beating in shipping, though. Might want to add some padding next time.

Thanks!

Ordered these on a whim and was very pleased with my decision. I thought for organic citrus the price was good (not great, but it all goes to the farmer rather than middleman, a concept which I like to support). They arrived in timely manner and were in great condition. Nice balance of sweet and tart, VERY juicy and fresh. I've been prancing around the house yelling "satsumaaaaa" and doing karate kicks.

I've been disappointed with store bought mandarins and clementines in their cute little boxes, because so often are dry and stringy. Not these. Yum, yum, yum. I try to eat mostly local produce but am pleased I made an exception for these. And you can't beat the free shipping!

My only disappointment is that they don't come in a smaller option as well. I wanted to send as a gift to a single person, and this huge box I think would be too much. I wouldn't want to risk them going bad :(

In summary: excellent taste, great texture and freshness, prompt delivery, good price and great for battling scurvy.

I ordered the 15 lb box of Satsuma Mandarins - Shipping was prompt - that was good. However, there were a few rotten ones in the box, not just overly soft, but rotten (I found this out the hard way when I was digging into the box to move the fruit to the fridge. Ick.)

The fruit was not sweet. In fact, it was on the tart side, which was disappointing, since usually citrus from Florida is a real treat. I realize that depends on when it's harvested in the season, crops, weather, etc...but I could have gotten sweeter ones (and I have) in my local organic market.

Just received the box, a little surprised by the packaging, but when comparing prices, there's just no comparison! Perfect timing - delivered on the first "real" snow in southeastern Virginia! My husband and I were both impressed at how easy they peel - we've plowed through 4 of them already! So delicious, sweet, juicy, no seeds, much better than the clementines we have at the grocery stores! Thank you for this wonderful offer!

Received the mandarins yesterday. Opened the box immediately as it was badly dented and misshaped. The mandarins were inside a priority mailbox with no other packing. About a dozen of the mandarins were bruised or cracked apparently from rough handling as they made their way from coast to coast.

Otherwise, these are the best tasting, juciest and sweetest mandarins...much better than storebought. We will be sharing the bounty with family and friends.

I would definitely buy these again.

dp-ct

I just received my box of Satsuma Mandarins here in North Carolina where the temps are freezing right now. The box delivered by the post office was a bit beat up. I was a little nervous about what the fruit would look like due to the look of the box and the freezing temps. But, I was delighted to open and find a box full of perfect fruit! Immediately peeled one of those little fruits and ate it ~ it was the best mandarin I have ever had ~ I am not kidding ~ I will order these every single year ~ no reason to go anywhere else with fruit this good. Organic is a big big big plus for me too ~ loving it! Can't wait to share ~ going to be eating these all day today. Thank you for such a wonderful treat ~ like eating sunshine.

On the recommendation of AnnMarie of the Cheeseslave blog, I ordered a box of these mandarins last year as a gift for my parents in Upstate NY. They said these were the best mandarins they'd ever had. The 15 pound box was more than the two of them can consume, so they enjoyed sharing the bounty with friends and neighbors, saying they were "spreading around a little CA sunshine cheer". Perfect timing, being holiday time.

So this year I ordered another box for them and this time, a box for my family, too, even though we live in So Cal and have plenty of CA sunshine.

Oh yum! The mandarins arrived in perfect condition in a USPS Priority Mail flat rate box that had protected the oranges well, judging by a few dents at the box corners. A big bowl of oranges is a lovely bright centerpiece on my table, with few small bay branches tucked in for green contrast.

These mandarins are noticeably fresher than the boxes of shellacked mandarins I've bought in the grocery store (store-bought mandarins tend to contain some bruised and molding oranges, not to mentions sometimes a high percentage of dry oranges, but not these). We are nearly through the box of mandarins already, and every one of them has been excellent. We eat them out of hand, tossed in salads, and mixed into smoothies, yogurt, or cottage cheese. My son takes two in his lunch bag to eat at school.

We shared some of our mandarins with my husband's coworkers, and my 12 yo's soccer team practically inhaled the peeled orange halves we provided during the game's half-time snack last weekend.

Looks like we'll be making a box of Chaffin Family Orchard mandarins an annual treat.

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL fruit ~~ what a welcome sight on a 10 degree day!! Thank you so much! Our family is SO excited that we open the refrigerator just to see them:-)

Wonderful fruit - box packed to the brim. The kids were so excited and happy to open the fragrant box. They are eating so fast I better jump in and grab some, lest I be left behind! So happy to be buying from 'real people' instead of a grocery store chain. Thank you, thank you!