Hospice barns, ranches, homes tour includes barbecue at Limoneira

It is fitting that a March 12 tour of Santa Paula barns, ranches and houses include a barbecue at Limoneira Ranch, cooked up by the Ventura County Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers.

On the 28th annual tour to benefit Santa Clara Valley Hospice/Home Support Group Inc. are Joanna and Randy Axell’s Rancho Rodoro on West Telegraph Road; Gail and Richard Pidduck’s Santa Paula Creek Ranch on Rafferty Road; and Esther and George Tamayo’s Lingdooley Ranch off Foothill Road.

The $25 cost of the tour includes the barbecue, from noon to 2 p.m., and a visit to Limoneira Co.’s old general store, which now serves as a Visitor Center. Tickets are $30 the day of the tour.

Twenty tractors belonging to members of the Topa Topa Flywheelers Antique Gas Engine and Tractor Club will also be at each stop.

“This is a unique change from the usual home tour. We’re all really excited about offering barns, ranches, homes, an artist’s studio and barbecue,” said Cathy Barringer, a founder and board member of the local nonprofit hospice organization. “It’s the best bargain in town.”

The Young Farmers and Ranchers will be serving up tri-tip, chicken, beans, salad and bread at the picnic area of Limoneira Co. As part of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, the group has plenty of practice as it holds monthly barbecues for its members who are active agriculturists between the ages of 18 and 35.

Visitors will be able to take a tram for a short ride from the picnic area to Limoneira’s old general store, which was converted to the company’s Visitor Center in 2009.

Shuttles will take visitors from the Limoneira Co. parking lot to the Tamayo’s Lingdooley Ranch off Foothill Road. To avoid a possible bottleneck, visitors may want to visit Lingdooley Ranch before the barbecue, Barringer said.

Opened in the 1920s and closed in 1989, the general store was “a meeting place, a social place,” said Frances Gonzales, executive assistant, who grew up in Santa Paula and has worked for Limoneira Co. for 34 years. “There’s a lot of history, from farming implements to information on the solar orchard. There’s a little bit for everyone,” she said.

The Visitor Center now holds historic ranch items, such as the original boardroom table, ledgers, crate labels and photos of the general store, company founders and all the ranches Limoneira owns, said Camille Yanez, Limoneira’s marketing coordinator.

The store sold food, clothing, medicine, shoes and other sundries. It was an especially popular place to buy blue jeans, Gonzales said.

Limoneira Co. started with the purchase of 413 acres by Nathan W. Blanchard and Wallace L. Hardison in 1893. Today, the agribusiness and real-estate company has 7,300 acres, growing lemons, avocados, oranges, pistachios, pluots, cherries and specialty citrus.

Axell’s Rancho Rodoro

Other stops on the tour include Joanna and Randy Axell’s 144-year-old farmhouse, circa 1930 barn and tree house on their 40-acre Rancho Rodoro. Its name comes from the first letters of Randy’s father and mother’s names: Ross and Dorothy.

Abner and Charlotte Haines were the ranch’s original owners, building their house in 1867 and farming more than 200 acres. By 1878, they had 100 acres of barley, 13 corn, 25 alfalfa, five orchards, 300 hogs and 32 horses. Today, the Axells live in the same house and grow 4,000 avocado and lemon trees.

Prepare to be amazed at all the historical, beautiful and whimsical collections in the barn and house that reflect the Axell, McDivitt and Haines’ history and tell stories of Santa Paula and California history. Randy’s craftsmanship is on full display, from all the antique furniture he has restored to the fixtures and gizmos he has fixed.

Echoes of the past are everywhere, local artists’ work hangs on every wall and most of the antiques have been restored by Randy. “I love old things that are made of wood,” said the fourth-generation Ventura County farmer.

Pidduck’s Santa Paula Creek Ranch