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Do what you love, love what you do. And remember, the path to success is never a straight line. You might say this is Alisha Taff’s motto.
Nestled into a notch in the majestic Los Padres National Forest, Alisha Taff’s 320-acre Rock Front Ranch, sits at the gateway of the Cuyama Valley. Its remote location protects it from the cacophony of the digital age (no landline or cell service) and also creates a protected environment for her organic jujube orchard and its bees.
Alisha Taff’s jujubes are not the tiny resinous fruit candies that kept many a wide-eyed young moviegoer occupied for nearly the entirety of a feature film. Alisha’s organic jujubes are, depending on the variety, an olive to plum sized crisp, sweet fruit with a small pit that can be enjoyed fresh or dried. The sugar content of the fruit is consistently in the 20s on the Brix scale.
Alisha has been a jujube fan for years. “I’ve been eating them since I was two and growing them since 2013,” she said.
The deciduous jujube trees are hardy, ideal for their remote, dry location, and makes them especially amenable to being managed organically. They are drought tolerant, soilborne disease tolerant, and have no pests in the US.
“Except my daughter and a few birds,” jokes Alisha. “And organic is just the right thing to do.”
Marketed under the Just Jujubes label, the orchard is certified organic, but Rock Front Ranch is a diverse operation. Alisha also tends bees and cattle----both managed holistically and organically, but not certified.
“We can't run a large enough number of cattle to justify certification and the NOP is still trying to come up with a bee friendly certification system that is not based on other livestock practices,” said Alisha.
Alisha’s bees are uniquely well-protected on this remote ranch. They forage only on native plants: wildflowers in the early spring, sage in early summer, buckwheat mid-late summer and toyon in late summer into fall.
“We only harvest the wildflower and sage honey (under the Rock Front Ranch label), which means the bees get to keep what they are supposed to eat to stay healthy,” said Alisha. The isolation of the ranch has only made the honey more prized, as it is certified free from glyphosate residue.
The Rock Front Ranch focus is on sustainability across the board, and the jujube is a zero-waste crop. “Think one big circle,” Alisha said. “The animal manure is placed in a BEAM inoculate incubator for one year. Then it is then applied to the soil to build microbial diversity and improve the health of the soil thereby creating healthier trees. We use cover crops to sequester carbon and bring additional nutrition to the soil and mulch to build humic material and improve soil health. The jujube fruit is sold fresh, and dried and cull fruit is made into a delicious high-octane spirit... no waste!”
Will this exotic, organic delight be the next superfruit? Jujubes have been used as a functional food (medicinal food) for centuries as a cornerstone of traditional Chinese medicine. These sweet, little treats are higher in vitamin C than an equivalent amount of citrus and they contain 18 of the 22 amino acids.
“Like an avocado, they contain an amazing micro mineral profile that includes iron,” Alisha said.
Alisha is a jujube connoisseur, savoring them fresh off the tree or dried.
“Imagine if a not-too-sweet date and a fig fell in love and had a child, with notes of brown sugar and caramel, “ she said
“In growing the fruit, I know I'm doing right by the ranch and improving it for the future, Alisha said.. “In selling the fruit, I know I'm bringing a healthful, functional food to nourish many people's minds and bodies. I know my efforts will insure that this will be a place for my daughter in the future and that is what keeps me going every day.”
