We just noticed – January 2024 is the 20th Anniversary of the birth of our little “Little Wonder” Kishu mandarin brand. It kinda snuck up on us. But we thought we would take a moment and celebrate the little guy.
Kishu mandarin has a history far older than its rebranding as “Kishu” in 1880s Japan.
We encountered the Kishu in 2000 on a tour of Citrus Variety Collection conducted by Ottillia Biehr. We thought it was cute and might make a nice little Christmas snack.
So we planted 50 Kishu trees (special order, because no one was growing the Kishu), and waited for them to grow.
As soon as we had fruit, we took the first Kishus to Bill Fujimoto at Monterey Market.
Bill had introduced our Pixie tangerines to his customers, and we thought we had another great mandarin to share.
Things went well. We planted more Kishus.
Chez Panisse took up the Kishu and people who dine there started to write nice things about it.
Things got a little out of hand. People started calling the house, wanting shipments.
We built a primitive system for taking orders (ht Formdesk!), and the Little Wonder was born.
Our first mail order was packed on the dining room table (no barn yet).
We entered the Logo Era, the short-lived Recipe Era (Ham a la Kishu?), the Kishu Merch Era (that Kishu apron was fire), and the Meme Era (surfing Kishu bear!)
And people kept writing nice things.
Things went (mostly) well. And here we are.
