Goldbud cares for decades old orchards, planted with varieties that were bred in an era where only quality mattered. To propagate newer plantings, we collect cuttings off trees selected from old orchards or heritage trees with a consistent pattern of flavor quality. Other growers do not have access to our heritage selections. Modern selections are bred purely for aesthetics, ease of growth, and durability in the supply chain. We run the other direction.

Most of Goldbud's team members have 20 to 30 years of experience in the same orchards. Their unique technical and institutional knowledge allow us to hand prune each tree to an exact standard for each variety we grow and site we farm. We hand thin each tree to a specific crop-load after the hail and freeze window has passed. This thinning pass serves as the first quality selection. Modern orchards are mechanically pruned and non-selectively thinned while the fruit is still just a flower with machines or chemicals.

Goldbud Farms is one of the last operations that hand harvests and grades each piece of fruit. First, in the spring when flawed fruit is dropped off the tree in the thinning pass, secondly, when selected for harvest. Then for a third time when graded in the packing facility, and finally with a QA check when the box is sealed. Any ripe fruit that does not make the standard of perfection is donated to the Sacramento and Placer Food Banks, filling a great need among some of California's most sensitive populations.

Goldbud is a 2nd generation family business, and most of the commercial markets and professional chefs that Goldbud Farms works with have done so for decades and have an exclusive in their respective markets. We started small, as did they, and we have grown our reputations together. These close relationships have allowed us to retain a strong feel for the marketplace and forces us to take that feedback, and get better every day. Your purchases also help support our long-standing donation program providing food to schools, the elderly, the unhoused, and many others in Northern California, through the Sacramento and Placer Food Banks.

High levels of ripeness create a challenge with shipping and handling. In our decades of production we've perfected the art of efficient harvest and delivery, often going from tree to countertop in less than 48 hours in our custom, secure packaging.

Goldbud Farms' mountain elevation allows for a later start to the growing season and provides cooler nights. The tree fruit effortlessly ripens to higher sugar levels without losing texture or balancing acidity. We boast some of the industry's highest elevation orchards and vineyards.

If the day's harvest or the seasonal cycle doesn't yield the volume to meet our orders, Goldbud refunds customers and limits production only to that which makes the cut. Most other producers stretch production by adding in the legal limits of lesser fruit or by purchasing and relabeling bulk fruit available from brokers.

Goldbud's orchards are rooted in either the deep rich Volcanic Aiken Clay Loam of Apple Hill or the sandier decomposed granite soils of the Gold Hill Region (just 3 miles from the California gold discovery site that started the Gold Rush). Both soils retain water and nutrition far better than the valley. Goldbud's access to seasonal surface water allow trees and vines to thrive with vitality in a far more sustainable manner than California's valley agricultural districts. At our elevation Bears, not insects, are the main pest!