Copyright Joliet, IL Patch
Oprah's 'Favorite Things' 2025: On the annual gift-giving guide is a product from a woman who ignored predictions that she'd fail. Oprah’s Favorite Things, the annual gift-giving guide with a list of goodies curated by the queen of all things self-care herself, dropped on OprahDaily.com Wednesday morning. On Oprah's 2025 “Favorite Things" is the ODE Hand & Body Lotion Discovery Set made by the McEvoy Ranch on the Sonoma-Marin border. "Beautifully packaged and made in Petaluma, California, this set includes Verde, which smells like a stroll through sunlit olive groves, as well as Lavender, Citrus, and Unscented options," Oprah said of the McEvoy lotions. "They sink in fast and leave skin silky." That is high praise coming from Oprah, whose attention is often enough to launch a book, idea, or business. But the story gets more interesting because the olives in the lotion come from a ranch whose founder was a tenacious entrepreneur who created a pioneering business out of determination and silky olive oil. She launched ideas and businesses in an earlier era. Oprah's media empire would have impressed Nan Tucker McEvoy, the newspaper heiress who headed the parent company of the San Francisco Chronicle for two decades before buying an old dairy farm in Petaluma that often smelled like its mainstay industry, chickens. McEvoy netted hundreds of millions of dollars in 1999 from the sale of the Chronicle, founded by her grandfather, M.H. De Young, according to accounts. The sale helped make her one of the wealthiest women in the United States. She bought the 550-acre former dairy farm off of Red Hill Road on the western side of Petaluma, near the Sonoma-Marin border, in 1990 and, deciding against growing winegrapes or raising cattle, settled on planting 1,000 olive trees, according to the McEvoy website. Friends warned McEvoy that she was making a mistake. Instead, the farm became a model that others have followed. The olives are grown and milled onsite, according to McEvoy Ranch President Samantha Dorsey. The extra virgin olive oil produced from the trees now goes into the ODE skin care line praised by Oprah. That includes the whipped body butter, which made it onto Oprah’s Favorite Things list in 2024. The line of skin care products feted by Oprah started with the dry hands of the ranch's gardening team and now includes lotions, balms, oils, butters, cleansers, and gels for hands and body. Oprah's gift list features more than 100 items, with more than half made by small businesses. More than 60 items on the list are under $100, and over 30 items are under $50. "Our hand and body lotions are deeply moisturizing, blending the nourishing benefits of our extra virgin olive oil with beautiful botanicals," Dorsey said. "And with the Discovery Set, you get to try them all!"
