Cattle & Citrus

ARCADIA — In 1887, cattle rancher James Shelfer moved his family to Florida from Texas and began planting orange trees along the Joshua Creek. Four generations later, his great-great grandson Kevin Shelfer and his wife, Lynn, are over a 1,000 boxes of citrus a week up north and bringing back “old time Florida” at the same time. James Shelfer died not long after his arrival to the area, killed by a broken neck when he was thrown off a bucking horse, explained Kevin. James’ wife and three living sons continued the family ranch and grove, which was passed down to Kevin through his great-grandfather Dan Shelfer, grandfather Arthur Shelfer, and father Dan Shelfer. But it was Kevin and Lynn who started the well-known mail-order business and retail store known as Joshua Citrus in 1989. With its retro signage, fresh-squeezed OJ, and orange-flavored ice cream, the packinghouse and outdoor store feels like a throwback to the old Florida that existed before the coasts became stacked up with condos and when no one had ever heard the term “citrus greening.” “We just kind of fell into it,” said Kevin, who explained that the couple were running a plant nursery at the time. “We had a friend that had a gift fruit shipping business, and we just thought it would be kind of neat,” added Lynn, who is also from a citrus family. “We started small.” By “small” she means she and her husband packed the fruit themselves, spraying the wax on with a spray bottle. They carried their packages to the post office. ”It was just us and we did it,” Lynn went on. “We were excited if we had eight or 10 (packages) a week!” Twenty-six years later, the bustling grove and packinghouse at 4135 County Road 760 grows 13 different varieties of citrus and ships between 1500 and 2000 boxes of fruit a week during the busiest time of the year...more